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TERRORS  OF  THE  LAW 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

THE  LAW'S  LUMBER  ROOM 

Second  Edition 

THE  LAW'S  LUMBER  ROOM 
SECOND  SERIES 


TERRORS  OF  THE  LAW 

BEING  THE  PORTRAITS  OF  THREE 
LAWYERS  "BLOODY  JEFFREYS"  "THE 
BLUIDY  ADVOCATE  MACKENZIE" 
THE  ORIGINAL  WEIR  OF  HERMISTON 


BY  FRANCIS  WATT 


JOHN   LANE    •   THE   BODLEY   HEAD 
LONDON  AND  NEW  YORK  •  MDCCCCII 


Printed  by  BALLANTVNE,  HANSON  &•  Co 
At  the  Ballantyne  Press 


Contents 


PAGE 

PREFATORY  .....  1 
"BLOODY  JEFFREYS  "  .  .  .17 
"THE  BLUIDY  ADVOCATE  MACKENZIE"  43 
THE  ORIGINAL  WEIR  OF  HERMISTON  93 


portraits 

The  Original  Weir  of  Hermiston ;  after 
the  picture  by  Raeburn  in  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  Edinburgh  .  .  Frontispiece 

Jeffreys  as  Recorder  of'  London,  cetat.  30  ; 
after  the  picture  by  Kneller  in  the 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  London  . 

To  fact  page      24 

The  Lord  Advocate  Mackenzie  ;  after  the 
picture  by  Kneller  in  the  Parliament 
House,  Edinburgh  .  .  To  face  page  44 


Note 


IPtefatotg 

THESE  are  Critical  and  Biographical  Studies 
or,  as  I  should  prefer  to  call  them,  "Por- 
traits" of  Three  Eminent  Lawyers;  the 
point  of  view  is  not  legal,  it  is  human  or 
literary,  there  is  no  discussion  of  the  techni- 
calities of  cases  or  changes  wrought  in  the 
administration  of  justice.  I  have  tried  to 
estimate  the  influence  of  these  famous  men 
on  their  times,  but  still  more  have  I  sought 
to  picture  forth  each  as  a  human  being. 
No  doubt  it  is  impossible  to  detach  them 
from  their  profession ;  just  as  easy  might  you 
deal  with  a  Pope  without  remembering  that 
he  was  an  ecclesiastic.  How  can  a  man 
engage  in  an  arduous  calling  for  many  years 
without  being  profoundly  affected  by  it? 
His  mind,  like  the  dyer's  hand,  is  "subdued 
to  what  it  works  in."  Thus,  though  this 


2  terrors  of  tfje 

book  is  anything  but  a  legal  treatise,  how 
vain  to  forget  that  the  three  men  of  whom  it 
treats  were  lawyers  and  that  they  looked  at 
life  from  a  legal  standpoint. 

In  one  respect  all  three  were  alike ;  they 
were  cordially  detested  in  their  own  time  by 
great  masses  of  people,  and  more  than  a 
touch  of  ill-repute  still  attaches  to  their 
names.  Two  of  them  are  still  conspicuously 
known  as  "  Bloody  Jeffreys  "  and  "  Bloody 
Mackenzie,"  and  if  "  Bloody  Braxfield  "  is  a 
less  frequent  conjunction,  it  is  at  least  not 
unknown,  and  circumstances  did  not  permit 
him  to  bulk  as  largely  on  the  stage  as  the 
others;  history  is  so  crowded  with  names 
that  many  remarkable  incidents  must  unite 
to  affix  a  permanent  stigma  to  the  most 
hated  of  tyrants  or  oppressors.  I  have 
tried  to  show  that,  from  certain  points  of 
view,  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  each  of  the 
three.  Jeffreys  and  Braxfield  have  scarce 
found  a  defender,  but  Mackenzie  has  always 
had  some  to  speak  for  him ;  if  even  in  his 
case  adverse  voices  have  prevailed,  this  is 
owing  to  the  success  of  a  party  in  politics 


8 

and  religion.  Covenanting  Scotland  won  all 
along  the  line,  and  of  late  years  it  seems,  in 
the  very  act  of  passing  away,  to  have  gained 
in  literature  a  last  victory  against  the 
Cavalier,  though  long  before,  Scott — Cavalier 
and  Tory  as  he  was — had  found  better  metal 
in  the  side  with  which  he  had  the  less 
sympathy.  How  real  living  are  Jeanie 
Deans  and  Bailie  Nicol  Jarvie  compared 
with  the  pasteboard  figures  of  Dundee  and 
Montrose !  Perhaps  Scott's  material,  not  his 
genius,  was  at  fault.  Is  there  not  a  touch  of 
pasteboard  and  tinsel  about  the  Scottish 
Cavalier,  spite  all  his  braveries?  It  is 
possible  to  take  a  firm  hold  of  a  character 
like  Jeffreys  or  Braxfield ;  the  men  reveal 
themselves  in  outspoken  speeches,  pithy 
characteristic  sayings,  unmistakable  action. 
Also  their  intellectual  activity  was  limited ; 
they  were  mere  lawyers,  and  their  other  life 
counts  for  little.  But  Mackenzie's  character 
is  a  harder  problem  ;  you  never  seem  to  get 
at  the  man ;  we  have  few  details  of  his  private 
walk,  still  fewer  characteristic  anecdotes 
about  him.  You  do  not  catch  him  without 


4  terrors  of  tfje 

his  wig  and  his  ruffs ;  scratch  him  as  hard  as 
you  like,  the  result  is  mainly  parchment  and 
pasteboard,  and  yet  he  was  certainly  not  a 
mere  lawyer.  The  Lord  Advocate  of  his 
day  was  necessarily  a  statesman,  a  figure 
greater  and  more  powerful  than  any  ordinary 
judge,  and  Mackenzie  was  essentially  a 
statesman,  one  of  those  who  governed  Scot- 
land during  a  critical  and  exciting  period. 
Also  he  was  a  man  of  wide  culture,  he  was 
an  accomplished  scholar ;  Jeffreys  and  Brax- 
field  were  ignorant  in  comparison  to  him. 

There  are  different  opinions  as  to  the 
value  of  his  works ;  they  have  been  unduly 
lauded  and  probably  as  unduly  abused,  but 
they  help  us  but  little  in  understanding  the 
man.  Even  the  famous  passage  about 
"  Christian  Charity "  only  makes  the  pro- 
blem more  piquant  and  more  perplexing. 
With  every  effort  I  feel  how  difficult  it  is  to 
fix  him  other  than  the  mere  official.  One 
explanation  may  be  given  of  this :  he  was  an 
advocate  all  his  life,  and  you  are  not  certain 
that  he  was  always  expressing  his  true 
sentiments.  But  this  could  only  affect 


5 

detail.  You  are  not  helped  much  by  his 
portrait.  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller  was  a  painter 
of  considerable  eminence,  and  the  figure 
that  looks  down  upon  you  to-day  from  the 
walls  of  the  Parliament  House  in  Edinburgh 
is  attractive,  brilliant,  interesting,  but,  spite 
of  all,  a  trifle  wooden  and  altogether  ex- 
ternal. The  man  is  lost  in  his  office,  the 
person  in  the  dress.  This  is  but  a  type  of 
Cavalier. 

The  very  pleasing  portrait  of  Jeffreys  by 
the  same  hand  is  another  proof,  if  proof  be 
needed,  that  Kneller  was  merely  an  utterer 
of  smooth  things  in  paint.  He  was  no 
Eaphael  or  Kembrandt  or  Vandyke  or 
Velasquez  ;  not  his  their  gift  of  seeing  into 
their  subject's  very  soul,  and  so  fixing  it 
as  to  make  their  portrait  of  him  a  truer 
revelation  than  the  very  form  it  bodies 
forth.  And  surely  of  kindred  genius,  even 
if  a  much  lesser  force,  is  Raeburn ;  at 
least  you  will  judge  so  if  you  move  a  few 
paces  along  the  floor  of  that  same  Parlia- 
ment House  from  Kneller's  Mackenzie  to 
Raeburn's  Braxfield ;  you  will  see  all  the 


6  terrors  of  tf)c  Hafo 

difference  there  is  between  cleverness  and 
genius.  You  have  a  dismal  suspicion  that 
you  have  not  got  your  Mackenzie  and  you 
have  not  got  your  Jeffreys,  but  you  have  got 
your  Braxy  as  really  as  if  he  trod  again, 
alert  and  vigorous,  this  once  familiar  floor, 
there  is  no  possible  doubt  about  that. 

Whilst  doing  my  best  to  body  forth  these 
men,  the  question  was  often  present  to  me, 
how  would  the  trio  have  figured  in  the  law 
in  our  own  day  ?  In  the  case  of  Mackenzie 
the  question  scarce  admits  of  answer,  for  the 
pleader  then  and  now  is  so  utterly  apart  as 
to  make  comparison  useless.  It  is  otherwise 
with  the  judges.  On  the  English  or  Scots 
Bench  of  our  own  time  Jeffreys  and  Brax- 
field  would  have  been  notable  figures,  their 
virtues  held  in  rare  esteem,  and  their  vices 
unknown  even  to  themselves.  Both  con- 
temporary reports  and  contemporary  criti- 
cism give  them  a  high  place  as  able  and 
vigorous  judges  in  non-political  trials.  They 
were  talented  men.  They  possessed  in  no 
common  degree  the  judicial  instinct,  they 
naturally  took  delight  in  its  exercise,  they 


7 

got  at  the  truth,  they  viewed  matters 
in  an  eminently  practical  light,  and  kept 
everybody — counsel,  suitors,  witnesses — in 
almost  too  servile  a  subjection.  The  Law 
Courts  are  of  necessity  concerned  with 
the  baser  aspects  of  human  nature,  and 
no  men  ever  knew  the  baser  aspects  of 
human  nature  better  than  these  two  judges. 
And  nowadays  political  trials  are  practically 
non-existent.  In  one  sense,  true  enough, 
they  were  not  great  lawyers.  Neither  gave 
his  name  to  any  legal  classic,  and  the  light 
which  literature  sometimes  throws  on  law, 
"  like  stars  upon  some  gloomy  grove,"  was 
not  theirs  to  shed.  But  an  enormous 
number  of  the  very  best  judges  have  left 
literature,  even  legal  literature,  severely 
alone.  Quite  possible  neither  Jeffreys  nor 
Braxfield  could  have  done  anything  note- 
worthy in  that  way  if  they  had  tried.  After 
all,  the  compilation  of  legal  text-books  is  but 
a  sorry  business,  best  left  to  the  dull,  if 
accurate,  drudge ;  not  for  such  does  British 
Themis  reserve  her  richest,  her  most  splendid 
rewards. 


8  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

There  have  always  been,  always  will  be, 
and  certainly  there  are  to-day,  judges  whom 
the  inner  circle  of  their  own  calling  unani- 
mously condemns  as  bad,  though  no  whisper 
is  ever  raised  against  their  honour  or  in- 
tegrity. In  truth,  a  contemporary  judge  who 
went  wrong  deliberately,  consciously  pre- 
ferring the  worse  side,  would  be  something 
more  than  a  knave ;  he  would  be  a  mad- 
man. To  call  a  Justice  "  upright "  is  super- 
fluous, an  insult  rather  than  a  compliment. 
What  motive  can  he  have  to  act  dishonestly? 
The  paths  of  duty  and  interest  are  iden- 
tical. But  one  can  see  many  causes  which 
may  induce  him  to  take  a  wrong  view  with- 
out deliberate  intention.  He  may  err  from 
mere  weakness ;  he  may  lack  the  necessary 
degree  of  intelligence.  Foisted  into  his 
place  from  some  political  or  other  improper 
cause,  he  may  do  well  enough  for  ordinary 
matters,  but  when  the  Touchstone  case 
arrives  he  has  not  proper  grasp  of  the  facts, 
or  he  may  suffer  from  ignorance  or  lack  of 
skill  in  applying  the  law.  Of  course  I  refer 
to  real  blunders,  something  more  than  an 


^rtfatorg  9 

opinion  given  in  a  difficult  case  where  oppo- 
site views  may  fairly  be  held  by  thoroughly 
competent  men.  Or,  again,  he  may  take 
whimsical  views  of  the  ordinary  affairs  of 
life,  be  without  insight  into  character,  be 
unable  to  tell  whether  a  man  is  speaking 
the  truth  or  not,  a  faculty  which  some  have 
as  a  sort  of  intuition  or  second  sight.  Worst 
of  all,  as  it  is  most  akin  to  deliberate  mal- 
practice, he  may  go  wrong  through  sheer 
laziness  ;  he  will  make  a  guess  at  compli- 
cated or  irksome  matters,  accept  too  readily 
the  plausible  statements  of  clever  counsel, 
simply  because  he  will  not  take  the  trouble 
to  do  better.  Nor  is  the  question  of  temper 
unimportant;  he  may  not  find  it  easy  to 
decide  in  favour  of  the  side  which  is  un- 
pleasant or  unpopular,  or  for  some  reason  or 
other  has  to  him  something  repulsive  about 
it.  Most  of  such  judges  are  mere  non- 
entities; they  do  a  certain  amount  of  harm, 
but  they  excite  no  notice  from  the  outside 
world,  and  once  got  rid  of  in  some  way  or 
other  are  immediately  forgotten. 

And  there  is  a  much  rarer  but  much  more 


10  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

harmful  instance.  It  now  and  again  happens 
that  a  man  of  great  eminence  and  ability 
may  find  his  way  into  the  Judgment  Seat, 
though  his  faults  of  temper  or  his  lack  of 
what  I  call  the  "  legal  instinct  "  makes  him 
a  costly  failure. 

It  is  evident  that  from  most  of  those 
evils  the  two  judges  here  treated  of 
were  exempt;  they  were  not  incompe- 
tent, they  were  shrewd  men  of  the  world, 
they  had  the  legal  instinct.  I  cannot 
deny  that  their  temper  was  of  the  hottest 
and  they  were  both  domineering,  but  the 
man  in  the  dock  in  those  days  somewhat 
accounts  for,  though  he  does  not  excuse 
this.  At  present  that  unfortunate  individual 
is  either  one  who  has  fallen  from  a  better 
estate  and  is  usually  overwhelmed  with  shame 
and  quite  dumb,  or  a  coarse  ruffian  who  has 
not  wit  or  education  enough  to  frame  a  co- 
herent sentence ;  but  then,  some  of  the  best 
men  of  the  time  occupied  the  dock  almost  as 
an  ordinary  incident  in  their  career ;  they 
were  well  educated,  of  extreme  ability,  and 
with  a  keen  belief  in  the  Tightness  of 


^rcfatorg  11 

their  cause,  and  as  keen  a  belief  in  the 
malice  and  wickedness  of  their  oppressors, 
among  whom  they  included  the  judges  as  a 
matter  of  course.  They  defended  themselves 
partly  because  they  must  and  partly  because 
they  preferred,  and  they  were  always  ready 
to  give  as  good  as  they  got  in  any  wordy 
warfare.  The  smoothness  and  propriety, 
and  even  apparent  absence  of  excitement,  of 
a  great  trial  of  our  own  day  is  a  modern 
development.  It  is  only  fair  to  suppose 
that  Jeffreys  and  Braxfield  would  be  richer 
in  decorum  in  a  more  placid  age. 

The  scope  of  these  papers  does  not  in- 
clude a  reference  to  authorities,  but  I  think 
there  is  a  sufficient  indication  whence  the 
material  facts  are  derived.  I  can  honestly 
claim  for  "Braxfield"  that  it  is  the  most  com- 
plete account  of  him  in  print ;  indeed,  there 
is  no  biography  of  him  other  than  the  notice 
in  Kay's  Portraits,  and  accounts  more  or 
less  fragmentary  in  biographical  diction- 
aries. It  may  be  said  he  was  not  important 
enough  to  furnish  material  for  a  substantial 
biography,  and  perhaps  at  no  time  was  there 


12  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

sufficient  material  for  such  a  thing.  Many 
of  the  stories  about  him  must  have  perished : 
no  doubt  some  were  false,  and  others,  true 
or  not,  would  scarcely  bear  the  light  of 
print ;  but  even  in  Edinburgh  and  in  the 
Parliament  House  itself  no  oral  tradition 
seems  to  survive.  As  regards  Mackenzie,  a 
tolerably  complete  though  quite  external 
biography  by  Euddiman,  the  Scots  scholar, 
is  prefixed  to  the  two  handsome  folios  which 
contain  his  works,  but  there  is  no  separate 
and  independent  biographical  account. 
Of  late  years  the  perplexing,  almost  irritat- 
ingly  perplexing  figure  has  awakened  such 
interest  as  the  appearance  of  magazine  or 
review  articles  may  serve  to  indicate,  but 
these  have  usually  dealt  with  one  side  of  his 
character,  treating  him  as  a  politician, 
philosopher,  or  writer  on  law.  I  have 
tried  to  look  upon  him.  chiefly  as  a  man,  but 
I  am  only  too  conscious  how  baffling  his 
personality  still  remains.  Much  has  been 
written  regarding  Jeffreys,  the  last  publica- 
tion of  importance  being  his  Life,  by  Mr. 
H.  B.  Irving.  It  is  an  apology  or  plea  for 


$«fatorg  13 

mitigation  on  very  much  the  same  lines  that 
I  have  taken.  The  article  on  that  judge 
here  reproduced  was  published  in  substan- 
tially its  present  form  in  the  New  Review  for 
August  1896,  and  Mr.  Irving's  book  in  1898. 
It  consists  of  368  pages,  and  is  altogether 
very  full  and  complete,  yet  I  venture  to 
think  that  the  slighter  sketch  may  still  be 
acceptable  to  those  who  may  not  care  to 
attack  a  comparatively  bulky  volume. 

I  should  add  that  the  article  on  Braxfield 
also  appeared  in  the  New  Review,  and,  also 
under  the  editorship  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Henley, 
the  paper  on  Mackenzie  appeared  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Review,  and  my  thanks  are 
due  to  the  editors  of  those  periodicals  for 
many  kindnesses.  Mrs.  George  Cornwallis- 
West  has  also  very  kindly  allowed  me  to  use 
the  portrait  of  Mackenzie  which  accompanied 
the  article,  and  which  was  specially  taken 
from  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller's  picture  already 
mentioned. 


u 


Jefftegs" 


Jeffreys 


MOST  men  find  it  irksome  to  distinguish 
the  neutral  tints  in  human  character  :  they 
prefer  to  paint  all  white  or  all  black,  to 
assign  a  great  name  to  the  definite  class  of 
good  or  bad,  to  brand  a  man  sheep  or  goat 
once  for  all.  In  literature  this  simple  method 
has  a  remarkable  effect  ;  Macaulay  owes  to 
it  nearly  all  the  point  of  his  famous  style. 
He  unduly  lauds  certain  characters,  he  ex- 
travagantly abuses  certain  others ;  and  so 
he  gives  his  readers,  ignorant  for  the  most 
part,  and  for  the  most  part  hankering  after 
an  opinion,  a  set  of  clear  and  definite 
perceptions,  thanks  to  which  their  minds 
are  no  more  troubled  by  the  task  of  ex- 
plaining contradictions  or  weighing  motives 
of  conduct.  His  abiding  and  abounding 
popularity,  the  permanence  of  his  portraits 


18  terrors  of  tf)e  Hafo 

— for  even  to-day  his  is  the  popular  view 
of  men  like  Warren  Hastings  and  Addison 
— attest  the  success  of  the  device  in  a  com- 
petent hand.  Yet  the  prime  facts  about 
human  character  are  complexity  and  incon- 
sistency. There  are  saints  and  there  are 
sinners  ;  but  your  saint  is  so  full  of  weak- 
ness that  ofttimes  you  write  him  down 
Pharisee,  whilst  your  sinner  proves  not  such 
a  rascal  after  all.  The  hard-and-fast  line 
fits  the  Sunday  School  treatise,  the  romantic 
novel,  the  popular  drama,  the  works  of  Lord 
Macaulay.  The  truth-seeker  has  a  harder 
task  and  must  content  himself  with  less 
striking  effects.  His  very  success  will  be  a 
kind  of  failure.  He  shows  that  the  sinner 
had  some  good  points,  forthwith  the  world 
converts  him  into  saint.  There  is  Cromwell, 
for  instance,  "  damn'd  to  everlasting  fame," 
in  Pope's  line,  execrated  for  the  better  part 
of  two  centuries,  and  exalted  by  Carlyle 
and  others  to  the  position  of  a  hero.  Thus, 
you  say,  "the  whirligig  of  Time  brings  on 
his  revenges."  True.  But  in  some  cases 
the  attaint  of  history  seems  beyond  any 


19 

writ  of  error ;  and  of  such  is  the  case  of 
Lord  Chancellor  Jeffreys,  the  "bloody 
Jeffreys  "  of  popular,  and  more  than  popular 
imagination.  Here  Macaulay  is  not  alone 
in  vituperation.  The  Lord  Chancellor  died 
execrated  by  a  whole  nation  and  abandoned 
by  him  he  had  served  ;  and  scarce  one  voice 
had  been  raised  in  mitigation  of  blame,  far 
less  in  defence  of  his  life  and  work.  A 
candid  examination  proves  him  anything 
but  the  monster  of  popular  fancy.  He  had 
many  good  qualities ;  he  did  much  useful 
work ;  his  vices  were  those  of  his  age ;  he 
shared  them  with  his  fellows  of  the  Bench 
and  the  Council  Chamber.  But  his  abilities, 
his  good  actions,  are  peculiar  to  himself, 
and  in  some  cases  they  made  him  bitter 
enemies.  I  purpose  to  consider  briefly  the 
principal  charges  which  have  been  brought 
against  him,  the  authority  on  which  they 
are  based,  and  the  extent  to  which  they 
must  be  considered  as  proved.  I  shall 
then  enumerate  his  good  qualities  and 
his  good  acts,  as  to  which  his  libellers  are 
silent. 


20  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

(1)  His  indictment  is  in  substance  this : 
Whilst  a  student,  he  frequented  the  tavern 
rather   than   pleaders'    chambers ;    though, 
having  an  eye  to  business,   he  ingratiated 
himself  with  attorneys  and  their  clerks,  by 
whose  aid  he  made  a  prosperous  start  at  the 
Old  Bailey  and  Hicks  Hall  (as  the  Clerken- 
well  Green  Sessions  House  was  then  called). 
Moreover,    all   through   his   career   he   was 
malign  of  temper,  and   continually  drunk, 
not  merely  in  private,  but  on  the  Bench. 

(2)  With  a  single  eye  to  his  own  interest, 
he   left  the   popular  side  for  that  of  the 
Court.     He  was  a  party  to,  nay,  more,  he 
prompted  the  worst  acts  of  James  II. 

(3)  As  a  prosecutor  he  was  grossly  unfair, 
and  showed  a  bitter   animus  against  the 
prisoner. 

(4)  As  a  judge  his  legal  knowledge  was 
small.     He  habitually  twisted  the   law  to 
get  convictions,  grossly  insulted  the  accused 
and    their    witnesses,   and   was    hopelessly 
corrupt.  His  conduct  was  specially  notorious 
in  the  following  trials  ;  Of  Algernon  Sidney 
(1683),  of  Sir  Thomas  Armstrong  (1684), 


23loolrp 

of  Titus  Gates  and  Richard  Baxter  (1685), 
and  through  the  round  of  the  Western 
Circuit  of  1685  (since  known  as  the  "  Bloody 
Assizes  "). 

I  must  distinguish  among  authorities. 
Jeffreys  is  the  centre  of  a  mass  of  legend 
and  tradition,  the  whole  of  it  utterly  un- 
trustworthy. His  death  coincided  with  the 
fall  of  the  Government  he  had  served,  and 
in  which  he  was  a  conspicuous  figure.  His 
enemies  held  power  for  over  a  generation. 
Everything  told  to  his  discredit  was  implicitly 
believed,  and  long  before  passion  cooled  the 
impression  of  him  as  the  "  bloody  Jeffreys  " 
was  stereotyped.  Even  on  his  own  side  he 
had  little  favour.  Two  chief  authorities  for 
his  life  are  Eoger  North  and  Gilbert  Burnet. 
Now  his  predecessor  as  Keeper  of  the  Great 
Seal  was  Francis  North,  Baron  Guildford, 
Roger's  brother,  with  whom  he  was  at 
variance,  so  that  Roger,  though  of  the  Court 
Faction,  detested  him  as  his  brother's  rival, 
and,  being  a  master  portrait-painter,  limned 
him  in  such  dark  lines  as  can  never  be  for- 
gotten. Burnet,  again,  had  been  proceeded 


22  terrors  of  tfje  Uato 

against  in  his  absence  for  high  treason  ; 
William  made  him  Bishop  of  Salisbury ;  he 
was  altogether  for  the  new  order,  and  Jeffreys 
was  not  like  to,  and  did  not,  receive  fair 
treatment  at  his  hands.  The  State  Trials, 
though  they  have  undergone  a  process  of 
editing,  are  our  best  witnesses,  and  we  shall 
see  how  far  they  bear  out  the  popular  view. 
Also,  the  customs  and  manners  of  the  Lord 
Chancellor's  age — nay,  its  political  morality 
— were  not  as  ours.  The  conception  of  the 
duties  of  a  judge,  the  method  of  trial — in 
special  trial  for  high  treason — were  radically 
different  from  what  they  are  now. 

Jeffreys  was  fond  of  company :  in  that 
age  this  meant  that  he  was  fond  of  the 
bottle.  Yet,  as  a  student,  he  gave  quite  as 
much  attention  to  the  pedantries  of  old 
English  law  as  they  deserved.  That  he 
made  himself  reasonably  agreeable  to  those 
on  whom  his  future  fortune  depended  should 
surely  be  no  reproach.  But,  in  truth,  his 
talent  from  the  first  was  so  evident  that 
attorneys  competed  for  his  services.  As  a 
cross-examiner  he  was  unsurpassed  ;  and  his 


style  of  oratory,  however  wanting  in  ele- 
gance, was  admirably  suited  to  the  taste  of 
his  day.  As  he  went  through  a  great  deal 
of  arduous  work  which  no  drunkard  could 
have  done,  the  slanders  on  his  early  career 
may  be  fairly  imputed  to  the  malice  of  dis- 
appointed rivals.  Scarce  ever  was  rise  so 
rapid  as  his.  He  was  Common  Serjeant  of 
the  City  of  London  at  twenty-three,  and 
he  was  Lord  High  Chancellor  at  thirty-seven 
— an  age  at  which  the  successful  lawyer 
of  to-day  begins  but  to  think  of  taking  silk. 
He  died  ere  he  was  forty-one.  That  he  was 
of  a  hasty  temper  must  be  admitted.  But 
his  was  a  coarse  and  violent,  nay,  brutal 
age,  not  given  to  sentimental  reflection  or 
to  half -measures.  In  fine,  he  must  be  proved 
worse  than  his  contemporaries,  or  his  con- 
duct calls  for  no  special  measure  of  blame. 

Political  subserviency  is  the  second  charge 
against  him.  True  it  is  that  he  left  the 
Popular  for  the  Court  Party,  a  change 
natural  enough  in  a  rising  man.  He  felt 
he  had  more  and  more  a  stake  in  the 
country,  and  his  dallyings  with  the  mob 


24  terrors  of  tf)t  Hafo 

were  mere  youthful  excesses.  There  was 
abundant  opportunity  on  the  Whig  side  for 
a  rising  lawyer,  and  Jeffreys'  interest  would 
have  led  him  to  curry  favour  with  the  City, 
never  a  Cavalier  stronghold.  Having  chosen 
the  Royal  side,  he  consistently  stuck  to  it, 
and  thereby  near  shipwrecked  his  career. 
After  serving  as  Common  Serjeant  for  seven 
years,  he  was  appointed  Recorder  of  London 
in  1678.  He  was  active  on  the  side  of 
the  "Abhorrers,"  who  favoured  the  King's 
delay  in  summoning  Parliament.  This  in- 
creased his  ill-favour  with  the  Mayor  and 
Aldermen,  whose  authority  he  had  again  and 
again  defied.  The  City  complained  of  him 
to  the  Commons,  and  the  King  was  urged  to 
deprive  him  of  his  offices.  His  Majesty  took 
no  steps ;  but  Jeffreys  was  forced  to  submit 
on  his  knees  to  a  reprimand  at  the  Bar  of 
the  House  and  resign  his  Recordership. 
Personally  he  was  not  a  favourite  with 
either  Charles  or  James,  and  his  rapid  rise 
in  after  years  may  fairly,  I  think,  be  ascribed 
to  his  merits  and  services.  He  was  no 
"Trimmer"  :  he  hated  the  word,  he  hated 


25 

the  thing :  he  was  thoroughgoing  by  nature 
and  habit.  He  held  himself  the  King's 
servant ;  he  might  first  advise ;  but  a  line 
of  conduct  once  determined  he  conceived 
it  his  duty  to  assist.  He  pointed  out  to 
James  the  impolicy  of  various  acts :  for 
instance,  the  prosecution  of  the  Seven 
Bishops;  though,  in  accordance  with  his 
principles,  he  officially  took  part  in  the 
trial.  To  turn  Eoman  Catholic  was  the 
sure  road  to  James'  favour,  and  the  fact 
that  Jeffreys  did  not  take  it  shows  that  he 
was  not  without  principle.  As  a  supporter 
of  the  Royal  policy  he  became  identified 
with  it,  and  shared  in  the  discredit  resulting 
from  its  failure.  In  politics  success  is  the 
test  of  merit,  and  thus  it  is  difficult  to  judge 
James  with  fairness  and  intelligence.  Yet 
the  Stuart  doctrine  of  kingship  is  at  the 
worst  a  comprehensible  theory  ;  and  the 
King  came  near  making  it  a  success  in 
practice. 

Jeffreys'  conduct  as  a  prosecutor  may  be 
dismissed  with  a  word.  He  was  never 
Attorney-  or  Solicitor-General :  although  he 


26  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

took  an  active,  it  was  ever  a  subordinate 
part.  It  was  his  duty  to  be  zealous  for  the 
Crown,  and  he  was  so  without  reproach 
from  his  leaders  or  the  presiding  justices. 
He  is  known  before  all  else  as  a  judge, 
especially  in  criminal  cases ;  and  it  is  here 
that  he  has  been  most  assailed.  Pedants 
then  and  since  have  raised  the  parrot  cry 
that  he  knew  no  law,  but  in  truth  he  was 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  essentials, 
though  he  despised,  and  perhaps  neglected, 
the  meaningless  technicalities  of  old 
English  jurisprudence.  He  had  the  true 
judicial  instinct.  He  grasped  the  main 
features  of  his  case  whilst  counsel  were 
labouring  their  openings.  He  was  impatient 
of  irrelevancy  and  waste  of  time,  both  ram- 
pant in  the  courts  of  his  day.  He  gave 
only  moderate  attention  to  precedents :  he 
was  as  fit,  he  argued,  to  establish  them  as 
any  other  judge,  and  heard  without  fear 
and  trembling  even  the  name  of  my  Lord 
Coke  himself.  His  considered  judgment  in 
the  great  case  of  monopolies,  The  East  India 
Company,  Plaintiff,  against  Thomas  Sandys, 


27 

Defendant,  conclusively  proves  him  possessed 
of  great  and  varied  legal  learning.  The 
point  was  whether  the  Company's  patent 
for  trading  to  the  East  Indies  exclusive  of 
all  others  was  good.  He  held  the  affirma- 
tive, and  his  decision  was  never  questioned, 
even  as  his  decrees  as  Chancellor  were  never 
overruled.  Before  all,  he  had  a  real  touch 
with  life,  a  profound  knowledge  of  human 
nature,  especially  in  its  baser  aspects. 

He  was  one  of  those  judges  who  take 
strong  views  and  express  them  strongly.  A 
Jacobean  trial  for  high  treason  was  in 
effect  the  reply  of  the  Government  to  open 
war,  secret  plot,  nay,  the  stroke  of  the 
assassin,  or  any  like  attack.  The  prisoner 
was  deprived  of  counsel  except  to  argue 
points  of  law ;  his  witnesses  were  not 
examined  on  oath ;  he  was  not  allowed  a 
copy  of  the  indictment ;  it  was  conceived  to 
be  the  judge's  duty  not  to  let  him  escape  if 
he  believed  him  guilty.  In  political  trials, 
too,  the  jury  often  consisted  of  men  in- 
different, or  even  ill-disposed,  towards  the 
Government.  It  was  not  to  be  expected 


28  terrors  of  tfjc  Hafo 

that,  in  the  case  of  one  notoriously  an 
enemy  to  the  rulers,  a  judge  of  the  time 
would  attach  much  weight  to  a  technical 
objection  which  might  set  that  enemy  free 
to  renew  his  attack  against  the  State. 
Jeffreys  simply  acted  on  the  theory  of  the 
judicial  office  current  in  his  day.  He  did  as 
his  fellows  did,  and  as  he  and  they  were 
expected  to  do.  That  he  was  fond  of  giving 
a  "  lick  with  the  rough  side  of  his  tongue," 
as  he  phrased  it,  there  is  no  doubt.  He 
suffered,  too,  during  the  greater  part  of  his 
judicial  career  from  a  painful  disease. 
Moreover,  neither  accused  nor  witnesses 
were  meek,  silent,  or  long-suffering.  Again 
and  again  the  latter  would  raise  the  same 
old  futile  points  with  exasperating  reitera- 
tion. They  would  fight  the  ground  inch  by 
inch.  They  would  bitterly  complain  of  all 
manner  of  wrongs,  and  ever  and  again  they 
would  roundly  abuse  the  judge  himself. 
This  was  excusable  in  people  fighting  for 
their  lives ;  but  it  goes  a  great  way  towards 
explaining  the  asperity  with  which  they 
were  answered  from  the  Bench.  With  it  all 


29 

Jeffreys  never  prevented  the  accused  from 
saying  what  they  wished  to  say,  and,  though 
he  had  a  much  better  idea  of  the  rules  of 
evidence  than  any  of  his  contemporaries,  he 
permitted  them  great  latitude  in  examining 
witnesses.  In  cases  where  the  law  allowed 
them  counsel,  they  were  permitted  to  address 
the  Court  in  supplement  to  what  had  already 
been  urged  in  their  behalf. 

In  no  case,  so  far  as  I  can  find,  did  Jef- 
freys retort  upon  a  prisoner  without  being 
moved  thereto  by  some  extravagance  on  that 
prisoner's  part.  At  the  Bar,  even  on  the 
Bench,  if  he  gave  hard  knocks,  he  took  them. 
Two  examples  I  give  as  thoroughly  charac- 
teristic of  the  epoch  and  its  men :  Jeffreys' 
second  wife  was  confined  an  unconscionably 
short  time  after  their  marriage ;  and  Jeffreys, 
as  counsel,  was  cross-examining  a  lady  in 
court.  "  Madam,  you  are  very  quick  in 
your  answers,"  quoth  he.  "  As  quick  as  I 
am,  Sir  George,  I  am  not  so  quick  as  your 
lady,"  was  the  delightfully  irrelevant  reply. 
At  the  trial  of  Collidge,  the  London  joiner, 
Titus  Gates  appeared  as  witness  for  the 


30  terrors  of  rt)e  Uato 

prisoner.  "I  do  not  desire  Sir  George 
Jeffreys,"  said  Titus,  "  to  be  in  evidence  for 
me ;  I  had  credit  in  Parliaments,  and  Sir 
George  had  disgrace  in  one  of  them." 
Jeffreys  parried  this  home-thrust  with 
perfect  good  humour :  "  Your  servant, 
Doctor ;  you  are  a  witty  man  and  a  philo- 
sopher." Nor  was  it  to  the  defence  alone 
that  he  used  hard  words.  When  counsel  for 
the  Crown  would  misbehave,  he  reproved 
them  very  roundly.  In  1684,  Joseph  Hayes 
being  tried  for  high  treason  and  acquitted, 
the  Attorney-General,  in  great  chagrin, 
asked  Jeffreys  to  bind  him  to  his  good 
behaviour  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  The 
motion  was  promptly  and  properly  refused. 
As  to  the  charge  of  corruption,  it  is  certain 
that  in  no  case  was  Jeffreys  bribed  to  influ- 
ence the  result  of  a  trial.  This  may  seem 
small  praise  for  an  English  judge  ;  but  that 
same  century  had  witnessed  the  impeach- 
ment of  Lord  Bacon.  It  is  urged  that  on 
the  Western  Circuit,  after  Monmouth's 
Rebellion,  he  made  considerable  sums  of 
money  through  his  agents  by  the  commuta- 


33Ioofcp  ^effregs  31 

tion  of  capital  sentences.  The  charge  is  by 
no  means  proved ;  but  did  he  do  so  he 
merely  followed  the  example  set  by  the 
Court.  Sentences  were  thus  commuted 
with  the  full  approval  of  the  Government. 
The  felon's  life  was  forfeit  to  the  King,  and 
if  the  King,  or  others  with  his  authority, 
chose  to  let  the  felon  off  on  easier  terms, 
that  was  (it  was  considered)  rather  a  mercy 
than  a  hardship. 

Turn  we  now  to  the  famous  trials.  One, 
that  of  Eichard  Baxter,  it  would  be  vain  to 
discuss.  There  is  no  shorthand  note  of  the 
proceedings,  and  Calamy's  Life  is  our  sole 
authority.  Some  of  that  author's  statements 
look  suspiciously  like  a  burlesque  of  Jeffreys' 
style.  Whether  they  be  so  or  no,  the  con- 
text is  not  given,  and  we  must  leave  the 
thing  alone.  In  the  case  of  Algernon  Sidney 
there  was  a  considerable  body  of  evidence  to 
show  that  the  prisoner  had  been  engaged  in 
treasonable  plots.  A  MS.  treatise  on  Gov- 
ernment, setting  forth  sentiments  then  held 
disloyal,  was  produced,  and  there  was  suffi- 
cient proof  that  it  was  written  by  Sidney. 


32  bettors  of  t&e  ILafo 

It  would  not  be  admitted  now,  and,  indeed, 
the  condemnation  was  reversed  after  the  Re- 
volution, because  of  its  admission.  Thus, 
much  may  be  said  against  Jeffreys,  though 
the  judges  who  sat  with  him  concurred  in  his 
view  of  the  law.  But  in  no  respect,  and  at 
no  point,  did  he  try  to  take  advantage  of 
Sidney.  He  advised  him  as  to  his  position, 
heard  him  at  great  length,  stopped  him 
sometimes  when  he  was  irrelevant  (which  he 
mostly  was),  but  urged  him,  "  in  God's 
name,"  to  "stay  till  to-morrow  in  things 
that  are  pertinent."  In  summing-up  he 
warned  the  jurymen  that  the  question  of  fact 
was  purely  for  them,  and  that  they  were  to 
believe  nothing  against  the  prisoner  except 
in  so  far  as  it  was  distinctly  proved.  When 
sentence  was  pronounced,  Sidney,  under 
cover  of  a  prayer,  accused  Jeffreys  of 
maliciously  seeking  the  shedding  of  inno- 
cent blood ;  and  "  I  pray  God  work  into 
you  a  temper  fit  to  go  into  the  other  world, 
for  I  see  you  are  not  fit  for  this,"  was  the 
judge's  famous  retort.  He  has  been  roundly 
abused  for  it.  Was  it,  under  the  circum- 


33 

stances — was  it  so  very  extreme  ?  In  the 
case  of  Sir  Thomas  Armstrong,  the  prisoner 
had  been  outlawed  for  high  treason  ;  he  had 
been  apprehended :  and  according  to  the 
law,  nothing  remained  but  to  pass  sentence 
on  him,  for  he  had  not  appeared  to  plead, 
and  he  was  not  now  entitled  to  a  trial.  So 
far  everything  was  clear.  But  the  prisoner 
urged  that,  by  a  statute  of  the  sixth  year  of 
Edward  VI.  he  was  entitled  to  trial  if  he 
yielded  himself  within  a  year  after  outlawry. 
The  judges  held  that  the  Act  meant  a  volun- 
tary surrender,  thought  the  point  too  clear 
for  argument,  and  therefore  would  assign  no 
counsel.  Jeffreys  pointed  out  that  it  was  for 
the  King  to  waive  the  outlawry  if  he  thought 
fit,  but  that  such  was  no  matter  for  them. 
Mrs.  Matthews,  Armstrong's  daughter,  was 
present,  and  accused  Jeffreys  of  murdering 
her  father,  and  Sir  Thomas  himself  made 
some  very  insulting  remarks,  all  of  which 
explains  the  judge's  one  retort,  when  the 
prisoner  demanded  the  benefit  of  the  law : 
"  That  you  shall  have,  by  the  grace  of  God. 
See  that  execution  be  done  on  Friday  next. 

c 


34  terrors  of  tfje  Uato 

According  to  law,  you  shall  have  the  full 
benefit  of  the  law."  And  again  I  ask  it : 
under  the  circumstances,  is  the  retort  un- 
natural ?  I  turn  to  the  two  trials  of  Titus 
Gates  for  perjury.  Titus  himself  was  a 
humorous,  thorough-paced  villain,  whose 
unabashed  and  brazen  insolence  under  all 
circumstances  wins  him  (despite  yourself)  a 
certain  sympathy.  That  Jeffreys  and  he 
should  slog  each  other  through  many  pages 
of  the  report  was  to  be  expected.  My  point  is 
that  Gates  had  nothing  but  perfectly  fair  play. 
Jeffreys,  with  stern  reproof,  kept  the  Attor- 
ney-General to  a  strict  course  of  procedure. 
The  prisoner's  crime  (it  had  cost  lives  of 
innocent  men)  was  proved  by  the  clearest 
evidence,  and  one  must  sympathise  with  the 
words  of  Wilkins,  J.,  in  pronouncing 
sentence,  that,  severe  as  it  was,  it  scarce 
seemed  severe  enough. 

There  remains  the  famous  Western  Cir- 
cuit in  the  autumn  of  1685.  The  chief 
counsel  for  the  Crown  was  Henry  Pollex- 
fen,  the  most  famous  Whig  lawyer  of  his 
day,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas 


after  the  Revolution,  and  the  judges  who 
were  with  Jeffreys  concurred  in  all  his  mea- 
sures. Yet  the  blame  has  been  reserved  for 
him  alone.  The  Government  had  determined 
to  act  with  unsparing  rigour,  and  its  policy 
had  some  success.  When  Dutch  William 
renewed  the  attack  some  three  years  after,  it 
was  a  long  time  before  any  one  joined  him, 
and  this  hesitation  was  universally  held  an 
effect  of  the  severity  then  exercised.  The 
chief  trial  was  that  of  the  so-called  "  Lady" 
Alice  Lisle.  The  charge  was  that  she  har- 
boured one  Hicks,  a  rebel.  That  a  woman 
should  help  a  fugitive  seems  a  natural  thing; 
but  under  the  same  circumstances  the  offence 
would  be  treason  to-day  ;  and  the  point  we 
have  to  consider  is  simply :  "  Was  it 
proved?"  I  think  it  was.  Two  points  had 
to  be  shown  :  (1)  Was  Hicks  a  rebel  ?  He 
had  not  then  been  convicted ;  but  the  fact 
was  made  abundantly  clear,  and  that  method 
was  fairer  to  the  prisoner  himself  than 
merely  producing  a  copy  of  the  conviction. 
(2)  Did  "Lady"  Lisle  know  it?  It  has 
been  said  by  Lord  Campbell,  among  others, 


36  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

that  there  was  not  a  particle  of  evidence  to 
show  the  scienter  (i.e.,  her  knowledge  that 
Hicks  was  a  rebel).  This  is  absurd.  True, 
the  chief  evidence  was  wrung  out  of  Dunne, 
a  hostile  witness,  by  Jeffreys  in  a  brilliant 
and  masterly  (though  certainly  brutal)  cross- 
examination,  extending  over  many  pages  of 
the  report ;  but,  joined  to  the  testimony  of 
Barter  and  Colonel  Penruddock,  it  amply 
justified  the  verdict  of  guilty.  The  sentence 
on  Sir  Thomas  Armstrong  was  quashed  on  a 
writ  of  error;  that  on  the  "Lady"  Lisle 
was  reversed  by  Act  of  Parliament  after  the 
Eevolution.  The  law  of  treason  was  held  to 
be  otherwise,  even  apart  from  statutory 
modifications.  But,  to  be  fair,  we  must  con- 
sider the  sentences  from  the  point  of  view  of 
James  and  James'  Government. 

Of  the  man's  great  ability  I  shall  say  no 
more.  I  will  but  quote  the  verdict  of  his 
bitter  enemy,  Eoger  North :  "  When  he  was 
in  temper,  and  matters  indifferent  came 
before  him,  he  became  his  seat  of  justice 
better  than  any  other  I  ever  saw  in  his  place. 
He  took  a  pleasure  in  mortifying  fraudulent 


37 

attorneys,  and  would  deal  forth  his  severities 
with  a  sort  of  majesty."     As  Chancellor  he 
introduced  various  much-needed  reforms  to 
his  Court.     To  mention  only  one :  A  great 
number  of  counsel  (sometimes  as  many  as 
ten)  were   briefed  and  heard  on  one  side. 
Jeffreys  put  this  down.     Mere  repetition  he 
refused  to  hear ;  and  such  was  the  dread  of 
his  merciless  tongue  that  the  abuse  vanished 
into    thin   air   with   his   refusal.     Had   his 
insolence  been  reserved  for  abuses  it  had 
been  precious  indeed !     The  Corporation  of 
Bristol  had  a  disgraceful  trick  of  terrifying 
petty  criminals  into  asking  for  transportation, 
and  then  selling  them  as  slaves  to  the  plan- 
tations.    Jeffreys  visited  the   city  on   his 
famous  Western  Circuit,  got  the  Grand  Jury 
to  present  the  Mayor  and  his  fellows  for 
these  acts,  and  forced  them  to  descend  from 
their  seats  and,  clad  in  their  splendour  of 
office,   to  plead    as    criminals   at  the   bar. 
"  See  how  the  kidnapping  rogues  look !  "  he 
thundered.     In  truth,  he  had  a  real  regard 
for  justice.     Dangerfield,  a  lesser  Gates,  was 
sentenced  (1685),  among  other  punishments, 


38  terrors  of  tfjt  Hafo 

to  a  severe  whipping.  Francis,  a  barrister 
of  Gray's  Inn,  insulted  him  after  his  punish- 
ment, and,  being  reviled  in  turn,  thrust  at 
Dangerfield  with  his  cane,  struck  him  in  the 
eye,  and  killed  him.  Francis  was  tried  and 
sentenced ;  but  the  Court  were  disposed  to 
let  him  off.  Jeffreys  insisted  that  the  law 
must  take  its  course,  and  in  the  result  it  did. 
Nor  was  the  judge's  private  life  without 
honourable  features.  The  story  of  his  first 
marriage  is  a  romance  of  gratitude.  He 
remembered  the  kindness  shown  to  him  by 
Philip  Henry — father  of  the  more  famous 
Matthew,  and,  like  him,  a  dissenting  divine 
— and  Sir  William  Clayton,  a  London  alder- 
man; and  he  was  able  to  save  them  both 
from  unjust  prosecution.  He  rewarded  the 
courage  of  a  clergyman  of  Taunton,  who 
attacked  his  conduct  in  that  town,  by  a 
canonry  in  Bristol  Cathedral.  He  never 
allowed  any  of  his  companions  who  had 
judicial  business  before  him  to  presume  on 
their  acquaintance.  When  the  Mayor  of 
Arundel  rebuked  him  for  his  interference  at 
an  election  in  that  town,  he  submitted  to  and 


39 

acknowledged  the  justice  of  the  reproof.  In 
fact,  he  was,  like  most  of  us,  a  mixed 
character.  He  had  faults,  but,  let  us  recall 
it,  these  were  balanced  by  some  virtues,  and 
much  may  be  pleaded  in  mitigation  of  the 
judgment  which  history  has  passed  upon 
him. 


'  lu/yir   ui  uiujj  s^J 

tt 


iSIutlrg 
JKacfcen^te 


Etrbocate 


THE  crowded  churchyard  of  Greyfriars,  at 
Edinburgh,  is  rich  with  the  dust  of  them 
that  made  Scots  history  whilst  it  was  still 
worth  the  making.  On  the  south  side  of 
the  church  is  one  specially  imposing  tomb, 
built  after  the  style  of  a  classic  temple,  with 
ornate  Corinthian  columns,  a  dome,  and 
various  mortuary  embellishments.  Here  lie 
(how  unfitting  the  conventional  "rest"!) 
the  ashes  of  Sir  George  Mackenzie  of  Rose- 
haugh.  Whatever  your  creed  or  party,  you 
picture  him  other  than  the  sugared  Latin  of 
his  epitaph  suggests.  And  presently  for 
that  epitaph  you  fall  to  murmuring  the  old 
schoolboy  rhyme  : 

Bluidy  Mackenzie  come  out  if  ye  dar 
Lift  the  snack  and  draw  the  bar. 


44  terrors  of  tf)e  Uato 

Do  you  wonder  what  manner  of  man  was  he 
that  bore  this  legacy  of  hate  to  weigh  down 
his  name  after  two  centuries?  Let  us  try 
to  picture  him,  to  touch  the  human  being 
long  since  turned  to  dust,  to  conjure  for  a 
little  the  bloody  Mackenzie  from  out  his 
tomb,  and,  whether  or  no  we  dare  sit  in 
judgment  with  this  shadow  at  the  bar,  let 
us  realise  and  understand  its  story. 

Here  is  our  first  difficulty.  His  life  is 
mixed  up  with  the  history  of  the  period ; 
he  held  high  place,  and  as  official  actor  he 
wears  the  official  mask.  In  an  occasional 
phrase,  individual  act,  some  noted  trait  of 
character,  the  man  peeps  out.  Such  are  for 
us  treasure,  but  most  often  we  find  them  in 
hostile  records.  A  little  space  will  suffice 
for  his  early  years.  Mackenzie  was  born  at 
Dundee  in  1636.  His  father,  a  landed 
gentleman  in  Ross-shire,  was  brother  to  the 
second  Earl  of  Seaforth,  and  so  his  family 
was  of  the  bluest  blood  in  Scotland.  From 
St.  Andrews  and  Aberdeen,  Mackenzie  pro- 
ceeded to  Bourges,  that "  Athens  of  lawyers," 
with  its  memories  of  Alciat,  Rebuffi,  Cujas, 


'H  ri/rf 


iSlut&B  gttfbocate  Jflacfcen?te     45 

and  other  great  jurists,  where  he  read  civil 
law  and  much  else  for  three  years.  He  was 
admitted  Scots  Advocate  in  1659  and  re- 
admitted after  the  Restoration.  He  was 
fortunate  in  his  entry :  a  displacement  like 
the  Restoration  leaves  space  for  young 
ability ;  also  the  men  of  the  previous  ten 
years  needs  must  have  bowed  the  knee  to  the 
Kirk  or  to  Cromwell — not  seldom  to  both — 
and  opposed  with  more  or  less  heart  their 
King  in  exile.  Martyrdom  or  seclusion  were 
possible  alternatives,  but  the  most  had 
attempted  a  judicious  trimming.  Our  new- 
comer found  many  of  his  competitors  bur- 
dened with  this  awkward — nay,  dangerous — 
past  merely  because  they  were  his  seniors. 
There  is  no  doubt  as  to  Mackenzie's  red 
sentiments  ;  aristocrat  by  temper  and  cul- 
ture, proud  of  his  family  and  position, 
attached  to  Episcopacy,  for  whose  preserva- 
tion in  Scotland  he  strove  to  his  undoing, 
yet — it  is  one  of  the  many  paradoxes  of  his 
career — he  seemed  at  first  altogether  for  the 
people.  The  explanation  is  professional. 
An  advocate,  however  able,  cannot  hope  for 


46  terrors  of  tfte  Uafo 

important  employment  under  Government 
at  his  first  go  off.  But  the  man  attacked 
by  the  State  will  ferret  out  fresh  talent  and 
energy  for  his  defence.  And  the  novice 
has  every  motive  to  do  his  best ;  he  must 
convince  the  rulers  that  they  will  do  well 
to  attach  to  themselves  so  brilliant  an 
opponent. 

His  first  important  case  was  the  Marquis 
of  Argyll's  in  1661.  The  Marquis  petitioned 
to  have  as  counsel  Sir  John  Nisbet  of  Dirle- 
ton  (afterwards  Lord  Advocate  and  Lord 
of  Session,  still  remembered  by  his  Dirle- 
ton's  Doubts).  This  was  refused,  but  three 
advocates  were  assigned  him,  of  whom 
Mackenzie  was  the  second  "junior."  Argyll 
was  charged  with  treason  before  the  Estates 
for  that  he  had  supported  Cromwell's  rule  ; 
his  answer  was  that  he  had  passively  ac- 
quiesced in  the  inevitable,  and  such  was  no 
crime.  The  whole  affair  was  a  mass  of 
intrigue  for  and  against.  The  prosecution 
was  bitter  and  menacing,  the  Court  mainly 
hostile.  Yet  this  was  how  the  young  advo- 
cate spoke:  "I  must  tell  you  (my  Lords) 


47 

that  some  have  been  so  unjust  to  you,  as  to 
fear,  that  tho'  the  Probation  be  not  con- 
cluding, that  yet  ye  will  believe,  to  the  great 
Disadvantage  of  my  Noble  Client,  the  unsure 
Deposition  of  that  as  foul,  as  wide-mouth'd 
Witness,  publick  Bruit  and  common  Fame ; 
which  as  it  is  more  unstable  than  Water, 
so  like  Water  it  represents  the  straightest 
Objects  as  crooked  to  our  Sense;  and  that 
others  of  you  retain  still  some  of  the  old 
Prejudices,  which  our  civil  and  intestine 
Discords  did  raise  in  you  against  him  during 
these  late  Troubles  ;  But  I  hope,  Generosity 
and  Conscience  will  easily  restrain  such  un- 
warrantable principles  in  Persons,  who  are 
by  Birth,  or  Election,  worthy  to  be  Supreme 
Judges  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland"  He 
then  urged  ;  "  What  is  now  intended  against 
him  may  be  intended  against  you  ;  and  your 
Sentence  will  make  that  a  Crime  in  all  Com- 
pliers,  which  was  before  but  an  Error  and  a 
Frailty.  .  .  .  Who  in  this  Kingdom  can 
sleep  securely  this  Night,  if  this  Noble  Per- 
son be  condemned  for  a  Compliance,  since 
the  Act  of  Indemnity  is  not  yet  past  ? 


48  terrors  of  t!)e  Hafo 

And  albeit  His  Majesty's  Clemency  be  un- 
parallel'd,  yet  it  is  hard  to  have  our  Lives 
hung  at  a  May-be,  and  whilst  we  have  a 
Sentence-condemnator  standing  against  us. 
Phalaris  was  burnt  in  his  own  Bull :  And  it 
is  remarkable,  that  he  who  first  brought  in 
the  Maiden,  did  himself  suffer  by  it."  He 
concluded  by  artfully  urging  the  Estates  to 
remit  the  whole  process  to  the  Court  for  the 
King's  personal  consideration.  No  doubt 
he  judged  delay  the  best  for  the  prisoner. 
In  the  shifting  quicksands  of  current  politics 
all  changes  were  possible. 

And  now  the  Parliament  were  turning  to 
their  deliberations  when  one  of  those  dramatic 
incidents  which  crowd  Scots  history  decided 
Argyll's  fate.  "One  who  came  post  from 
London  knocked  most  rudely  at  the  Parlia- 
ment door,"  [Mackenzie  himself  tells  the 
story]  He  carries  a  mass  of  papers,  he  is  a 
Campbell,  surely  he  has  help  for  the  Marquis  ? 
So  his  counsel  inferred,  else  had  they  pro- 
tested with  might  and  main  against  this 
addition  to  the  Crown  case.  The  packet 
was  opened,  it  contained  letters  in  Argyll's 


iSlufog  gtttoocate  JWacfcen?u    49 

handwriting  proving  that  he  had  actively 
supported,  not  passively  acquiesced,  in  the 
Protectorate.    They  were  addressed  to  Monk, 
who,    himself    in   safety,    had   at   the   last 
moment  thrown  them  into  the  scale,  turning 
it  decisively  against  Argyll.     He  was  forth- 
with condemned,  and  on  May  26,  1661,  was 
executed.      The  passing  of   such  a  figure, 
"  without     mentioning     of     whom,"     says 
Clarendon  emphatically,  "  there  can  hardly 
be  any  mention  of  Scotland,"  excited  intense 
interest.     He  was  not  a  brave  man.     His 
enemies — and  he  had  many — hopefully  anti- 
cipated a  scene  on  the  scaffold.     Mackenzie 
bluntly  told  him  "  that  the  people  believed  he 
was  a  coward  and  expected  that  he  would  die 
timorously  " ;  he  said  to  me,  says  Mackenzie, 
"  He  would  not  die  as  a  Eoman  braving  death 
but  he  would   die  as  a  Christian,  without 
being  affrighted."     They  were  good  haters 
those  old  Scots  !     Cruel   eyes   watched  his 
last  moments;    cruel  voices  urged  that  he 
buttoned  his  doublet  twice  or  thrice  after  he 
was  ready  to  throw  it  off,  that  he  "  shifted 
to  lay  down  his  head,"  and  that  he  protracted 


50  terrors  of  tfje  Uato 

time  by  "  speaking  at  all  the  corners  of  the 
scaffold."  On  the  other  side,  his  physician 
told  how  my  Lord's  pulse  was  "  clear  and 
strong"  and  how — so  a  post-mortem  exami- 
nation proved — the  partridge  eaten  at  dinner 
a  few  hours  before  was  perfectly  digested. 
Whatever  his  natural  feelings,  Archibald 
Campbell  remembered  in  that  supreme  hour 
what  was  due  to  his  Kirk,  his  Clan,  and  his 
Ancient  House.  In  after  days  men  glorified 
him  as  the  Protomartyr  of  the  Covenant. 
Mackenzie's  potent  advocacy  had  the  com- 
pliment of  reproof ;  he  wittily  turned  it  off 
with  "  It's  impossible  to  plead  for  a  traytor 
without  speaking  treason." 

He  did  other  like  work.  He  strove  to 
save  "famous  Guthrie's  head"  from  the 
scaffold,  and  was  unsuccessful,  mainly,  he 
assures  us,  from  the  obstinacy  of  the  accused, 
who,  scorning  to  conceal  his  opinions,  would 
scarce  avail  himself  of  professional  assistance. 
Mackenzie  notes  "  his  great  parts  and 
courage,"  and  regrets  him  as  impracticable 
and  impossible.  The  two  most  prominent 
names  on  the  martyrs'  monument  in  that 


51 

same  Greyfriars  churchyard — you  may  read 
them  writ  large  thereon  to-day — are  the 
noble  Marquis  of  Argyll  and  the  Reverend 
James  Guthrie,  and  for  both  Bloody  Mac- 
kenzie was  Advocate.*  Also  he  was  counsel 
for  many  engaged  in  the  Pentland  Rising 
(1666).  And  we  find  him,  after  he  had 
done  everything  which  earned  him  his 
epithet,  pleading  for  accused  Covenanters  in 
a  brief  space  between  two  tenures  of  office. 
And  why  not?  says  Reason  and  Common 
sense.  To  do  his  best  for  his  client  is  but 
ordinary  and  proper  counsel's  work.  As 
Lord  Advocate  his  aims  were  necessarily 

*  I  cannot  resist  putting  in  this  place  the  following 
account  from  Woodrow,  Analecta  (i.  109),  of  the  strange 
scene  that  followed  on  Guthrie's  execution  : 

"  After  he  was  taken  down,  his  head  was  severed 
from  his  body  with  an  axe.  It  was  observed  there  was 
a  vast  effusion  of  blood  that  flowed  from  his  body, 
which  was  presently  put  into  a  coffin  and  carried  into 
the  Old  Kirk  Yle,  where  it  was  dressed  by  a  number  of 
ladys  of  good  quality.  Some  of  them  took  their 
napkins  and  dipt  them  in  the  blood,  and  when  Sir 
Archibald  Primrose,  the  Register,  challenged  one  of 
them,  viz.,  Mrs.  Janet  Erskine,  maryed  after  to  Sir 
Thomas  Burnet,  Doctor  of  Medicine,  for  the  doing, 
saying  '  it  was  a  piece  of  the  superstition  and  idolatry 


52  Errors  of  ti)t  Hate 

different ;  he  was  with  the  hounds  not  with 
the  hare,  conviction  not  acquittal  was  his 
game.  But  the  doctrine  of  the  pleader's 
aloofness  from  his  case  well-nigh  passes  the 
wit  of  to-day's  man  in  the  street,  and  Old 
Scotland  was  not  given  to  curious  considera- 
tion of  such  refinements :  to  prosecute  was 
to  persecute ;  that  the  prosecutor  had  once 
been  defender  was  counted  to  him  for  added 
wickedness.  But  I  anticipate. 

All  his  life  Mackenzie  was  a  busy  man, 
full  of  various  and  distracting  occupations. 
He  entered  Parliament  in  1669,  was  opposed 
to  Lauderdale,  who  called  him  a  factious 
young  man.  Nay,  more,  he  went  counter 

of  the  Romish  Church,  to  reserve  the  relics  of  the 
saints.'  It  was  answered,  '  they  intended  not  to  abuse 
it  unto  superstition  or  idolatry,  but  to  hold  up  the 
bloody  napkin  to  heaven  in  their  addresses,  that  the 
Lord  might  remember  the  innocent  blood  that  was 
spilt. '  In  the  time  that  the  body  was  a  dressing,  there 
came  in  a  pleasant  young  gentleman,  and  poured  out 
a  bottle  of  rich  oyntment  on  the  body  which  filled  the 
whole  church  with  a  noble  perfume,  one  of  the  ladys 
says,  '  God  bless  you,  sir,  for  this  labour  of  love,  which 
you  have  shown  to  the  slain  body  of  a  servant  of 
Jesus  Christ.'  He  without  speaking  to  any,  giveing 
them  a  bow,  removed,  not  loving  to  be  discovered." 


53 

to  the  royal  wishes.  The  Court  was  anxious 
to  bring  about  a  union  of  the  kingdoms. 
Whilst  Mackenzie  professed  himself  favour- 
able, he  urged  so  many  objections  to  the 
mode  that  he  aided  materially  to  founder 
the  scheme.  He  did  all  this  with  the  most 
honeyed  expressions  of  loyalty,  for  he  was 
aiming  at  State  office.  I  do  not  forget  his 
Moral  Essay ;  preferring  Solitude  to  Public 
Employment,  which  he  published  at  Edin- 
burgh in  1665,  and  which  John  Evelyn  took 
too  seriously  in  answering.  Mackenzie  was 
rather  fond  of  those  ingenious  speculations  ; 
two  years  before  he  had  given  his  Religious 
Stoic  to  the  world.  The  virtues  of  tolera- 
tion are  lauded  in  many  a  brilliant  phrase, 
but  their  practical  application!  He  culti- 
vated letters  during  these  years,  he  wrote 
largely  on  professional  topics,  he  perpetrated 
some  atrocious  verse,  which  I  must  do  him 
the  justice  to  say  he  did  not  publish  save  by 
sending  it  to  eminent  men  of  letters,  who 
before  the  invention  of  newspaper  waste- 
baskets  received  much  stuff  of  the  kind. 
Above  all,  he  had  his  increasingly  large 


54  terrors  of  tf)£  ILafo 

practice,  civil  as  well  as  criminal,  to  look 
after.  His  great  and  hated  rival  at  the  Bar 
was  Sir  George  Lockhart.  Mackenzie  com- 
plimented Lockhart  in  pompous  Latin  as 
corpus  alterum  juris  cimlis ;  in  his  Memoirs 
he  says  "his  insolence  and  avarice  were 
greater  than  his  learning."  Their  fellows 
judged  Lockhart  the  better  lawyer,  but  as 
mere  lawyer  and  nothing  more  he  played 
Coke  to  the  other's  Bacon. 

In  1674  arose  a  curious  dispute,  in  which 
both  were  at  first  on  the  same  side.  The 
Earl  of  Callendar  having  lost  a  case  before 
the  Court  of  Session,  appealed,  mainly  on 
Lockhart's  advice,  to  Parliament.  The  judges 
were  furious,  the  advocates  determined. 
These  made  common  cause,  and  a  strike  or 
rather  lock-out  of  the  Bar  ensued.  Some 
withdrew  to  Haddington  and  others  to 
Linlithgow — poor  markets  for  their  legal 
wares!  The  Court  took  sides  with  the 
Session,  nominally  on  the  point  of  law, 
really  because  the  judges  were  more  under 
the  King's  thumb  than  the  Estates.  Mac- 
kenzie finally  patched  up  the  two  years' 


gfcbocate  J*lacfccn?t'e     55 

quarrel  in  a  way  which  pleased  the  Court, 
and  he  was  marked  out  for  promotion. 
Another  legal  squabble  distinguished  the 
year  1677.  The  advocates  said  their  place 
in  the  Parliament  House  was  encroached  on, 
and  that  they  were  hindered  in  their  work. 
They  tried  to  shut  out  the  noblemen  who 
were  accustomed  to  hang  about  the  courts. 
A  mighty  pother  arose,  whereof  Mackenzie 
took  advantage  to  insult  Lockhart.  Ban- 
nerman,  another  advocate,  forthwith  sent  a 
challenge,  which  was  promptly  accepted. 
However,  the  judges  getting  wind  of  it 
bound  the  pair  over  to  keep  the  peace. 
Mackenzie  had  a  violent  temper,  an  insolent 
manner,  a  cutting  tongue.  He  had  not 
feared  to  beard  Lauderdale  in  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  he  answered  the  judges 
sharply,  he  was  presently  to  be  where  his 
words  had  greater  weight.  Nisbet,  then 
Lord  Advocate,  had  taken  fees  from  both 
sides,  and  behaved  improperly  in  various 
ways.  The  business  was  pressed  by  his 
enemies  and  he  must  resign.  In  August 
Mackenzie  was  made  Lord  Advocate,  Lock- 


56  terrors  of  the  Uafo 

hart  being  passed  over.  The  appointment 
lay  between  the  two.  A  turn  in  Court 
currents  and  history  had  pilloried  the  bloody 
Lockhart.  Better  for  Mackenzie's  fame  had 
Bannerman  pinked  his  man !  Mackenzie 
was  likewise  knighted  and  sworn  of  the 
Privy  Council.  As  one  of  the  great  officers 
of  State,  he  was  both  Member  of  Parliament 
and  of  the  Committee  called  Lords  of  the 
Articles,  which  drafted  and  practically  made 
the  Statutes.  The  Lord  Advocate  has  always 
bulked  large  in  Scotland ;  then  he  was 
greater  than  an  ordinary  judge,  and  the 
number  of  important  State  trials  in  the 
next  decade  was  to  emphasise  his  promi- 
nence. The  new  Advocate  was  (another 
paradox !)  keenly  interested  in  legal  reform. 
He  made  the  procedure  of  the  criminal 
courts  more  regular  and  favourable  to  the 
prisoner ;  he  has  claimed  all  the  credit  for 
this,  though  others  worked  with  him.  But 
how  little  forms  avail  was  to  be  speedily 
shown. 

And  now  for  a  word  on  the  time.     At 
the  Kestoration   the   Scots  authorities  be- 


33Iufog  gftbocatc  Jflacfem?te     57 

came  extravagantly  loyal,  and  everything 
made  for  absolute  rule.  In  1661,  the 
famous  Act  Rescissory  destroyed  all  legisla- 
tion since  1633.  If  Presbyterianism  was 
no  religion  for  a  gentleman  it  was  still  less 
one  for  a  despot,  even  because  of  its  rival 
pretensions.  Episcopacy  was  re-established, 
and  the  trouble  began.  Here  was  greatest 
opposition  to  the  Government,  and  thus 
theological  questions  entered  the  sphere  of 
practical  politics.  In  1666  was  the  Pent- 
land  Rising,  in  1669  the  Highland  Host 
ravaged  the  west,  in  1679  Sharp  was  assas- 
sinated, and  the  Rebellion  of  Drumclog  and 
Both  well  Brig  flared  out.  In  1680  the  ex- 
treme party  in  the  Sanquhar  Declaration 
threw  off  allegiance  to  the  Government. 
The  Apologetical  Declaration,  even  more 
extreme,  was  met  by  the  Abjuration  Oath  ; 
the  net  result  was  this  :  a  man  must  swear 
his  loyalty  or  be  instantly  shot.  Now  the 
Government,  though  they  easily  crushed 
open  insurrection — Drumclog  was  the  only 
covenanting  victory  —  could  not  destroy 
the  individual.  On  the  one  part  was  the 


58  Errors  of  tbe  Uafo 

absolute  policy  of  the  Stuarts  in  Church  and 
State,  on  the  other  the  stubbornly  hostile 
Scots  nature;  a  struggle  to  the  death  be- 
tween tyrant  and  fanatic  was  the  inevitable 
result.  Mackenzie  was  not  the  only  lawyer 
on  the  Privy  Council  (which  body  in  fact 
governed  Scotland)  but  he  was  the  legal 
mouthpiece,  and  it  was  his  to  translate 
their  policy  into  the  black  and  white  of 
the  Scots  Statute-book.  In  questions  of 
detail  his  legal  ingenuity  had  play.  By 
bonds  of  law-burrows  he  extended  the  old 
system  of  binding  people  to  keep  the  peace 
by  making  suspected  proprietors  responsible 
for  their  tenants.  As  prosecutor  before  the 
Court  of  Justiciary  and  in  the  preliminary 
examinations  before  the  Privy  Council  he 
was  prominent,  hence  he  became  "famous 
infamous  " — "  By  merit  raised ;  To  that 
bad  eminence."  He  was  a  thorough  abso- 
lutist. No  King's  Advocate,  he  boasted, 
had  ever  screwed  the  King's  prerogative 
higher,  he  had  never  lost  a  case  for  the 
King.  He  ought  to  have  a  statue  hard 
by  Charles  the  Second's  in  the  Parliament 


23Iut'lro  a&bocate  JWacfemtfe    59 

Close.  Nor  did  he  serve  royalty  for  naught, 
for  London  was  far  off,  and  increase  of 
royal  power  meant  increase  of  Scots  official 
power.  Hence  official  zeal ;  but  the  work 
was  congenial.  The  dexterous  twisting  of 
legal  forms,  "the  torture  of  laws"  in  Bacon's 
phrase,  gave  him  a  certain  pleasure.  He 
stooped  to  chicane,  trickery,  cruelty.  An 
irritability  of  temper  made  him  accentuate 
and  underline  the  worst  Stuart  tendencies. 
In  one  respect  an  examination  of  the  trials 
aids  his  reputation ;  a  certain  heaviness  and 
coldness,  an  intellectual  languor  clouds  his 
writing.  Some  stimulus,  some  fire  was  re- 
quired to  heat  the  mass ;  the  excitement  of 
a  great  criminal  trial  supplied  this.  His 
Crown  speeches  are,  I  think,  his  best  re- 
mains. They  are  a  curious  compound  of 
fiery  eloquence,  legal  argument,  and  preju- 
dicial matter ;  they  are  impressive  to  read, 
how  much  more  impressive  they  must  have 
been  to  hear ! 

And  these  trials?  There  is  Mitchell's 
case  in  1677.  Mitchell  had  fired  at  Sharp 
in  1668,  missing  his  aim,  but  grievously 


60  terrors  of  t!)e  Hato 

wounding  Honeyman,  Bishop  of  Orkney, 
who  sat  in  my  Lord  St.  Andrew's  coach. 
The  crowd,  with  the  quaintly  cynical  remark, 
that  "it  was  only  a  bishop,"  let  the  would- 
be  assassin  slip  away.  Six  years  afterwards 
Sharp,  recognising  Mitchell  in  the  High 
Street,  had  him  arrested.  There  was  a 
difficulty  about  another  witness.  Possibly 
the  Council  made  that  an  excuse  for 
promising  Mitchell  his  life  if  he  would 
confess  everything,  for  they  suspected  some 
far-reaching  plot.  Mitchell  did  confess, 
but  avowed  he  had  no  accomplices;  the 
Council  were  disappointed ;  they  brought 
him  to  trial,  meaning  to  have  him  punished, 
but  not  capitally.  Mitchell  now  refused  to 
plead  guilty.  He  was  sent  to  the  Bass 
Eock  and  the  matter  dropped  for  the  time. 
With  all  this  Mackenzie  had  nothing  to  do ; 
nay,  Mitchell  declared  on  the  scaffold  that 
he  had  been  his  counsel.  However,  in 
1678  the  new  Lord  Advocate  was  making  a 
sort  of  gaol  delivery  of  the  prisons,  and 
Mitchell  was  again  brought  up.  Mackenzie 
prosecuted.  He  tells  us  he  got  the  Council 


61 

to  appoint  Lockhart  to  defend.  There  are 
curious  points  hard  to  explain  about  the 
trial.  There  was  enough  evidence  to  con- 
demn the  accused  apart  from  his  own 
formal  confession.  Sharp  remembered  him 
perfectly,  and  the  "  goodman  of  the 
Tol booth  " — as  with  quaint  euphemism  they 
named  the  keeper  of  that  "  delectable  prison" 
(so  one  martyr  phrased  it) — narrated  that 
Mitchell  had  confessed  the  deed  to  him, 
which  the  goodman's  son  corroborated. 
Why  then  produce  the  conditional  confes- 
sion ?  Lawyers  have  a  way  of  piling 
certainty  on  certainty — from  excess  of 
caution  as  they  say.  Possibly  !  But  another 
mystery  is  behind.  Incredible  to  relate, 
John,  Earl  of  Rothes,  Lord  High  Chancellor 
of  Scotland,  Charles  Maitland  of  Hatton, 
Lord  Treasurer  Depute,  John  Duke  of 
Lauderdale,  James  Archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  entering  the  witness-box  one 
after  the  other,  stoutly  denied  any  promise 
of  pardon.  Lockhart  had  a  card  up  his 
sleeve,  to  wit,  a  copy  of  the  page  in  the 
Council  Records  promising  the  pardon. 


62  terrors  of  tlje  Uafo 

Presently  he  produced  it.  A  mere  copy 
was  no  evidence,  yet  Mackenzie  gave  express 
permission  to  read  it,  and  then  argued 
thus :  (1)  The  Council  had  no  power  to 
grant  the  alleged  pardon ;  (2)  the  confes- 
sion was  prior  in  time ;  (3)  the  proper 
means  had  not  been  taken  to  bring  the 
original  books  before  the  Court;  (4)  even 
if  such  a  statement  was  in  the  Council 
books,  how  weigh  it  against  the  evidence 
of  Lauderdale  and  his  crew  ?  The  judges 
held  these  two  last  objections  well  founded  ; 
Mitchell  was  condemned  and  executed. 
Mackenzie,  in  his  private  Memoirs,  criti- 
cises Lockhart's  management  of  the  case 
chiefly  in  not  bringing  the  Council  records 
properly  before  the  Court.  Possibly  Lock- 
hart  relied  on  a  startling  dramatic  effect, 
and  thought  the  surprise  would  carry  all 
before  it.  Even  he  may  not  have  foreseen 
how  far  witnesses  or  judges  would  go,  or 
was  there  a  deeper  motive  common  to  both 
advocates  ?  Was  each  eager  to  disgrace 
Prelate  and  Lord  ?  Mackenzie  probably 
thought  himself  entitled  to  make  the  best 


63 

of  his  material.  Yet  in  his  Vindication 
of  the  Government  of  Charles  II.  he  posi- 
tively denies  the  existence  of  the  promise 
of  safety. 

I  turn  now  to  Baillie  of  Jerviswood's,  the 
one  trial  (1684)  of  which  I  profess  to  give  a 
complete  account.     He  was  from  a  younger 
branch  of  the  ancient   house  of  Baillie  of 
Lamington,    "who   say  they   are    the  old 
Balliols."     He  was  "  a  man  of  great  natural 
parts    and     learned    and     well    travelled." 
Though  a  loyal  subject,  he  was  in  favour 
of  the  Exclusion  Bill.     He  was  attached  to 
the  Kirk,  he  was  for  reform,  he  was  son-in- 
law  of  Johnson  of  Warriston  who  had  been 
executed  as  a  traitor  (1663),  he  had  been 
in  trouble  with  the  Government  and  heavily 
fined,  he  had  been  on  more  or  less  intimate 
terms  with  political   reformers  in   London 
who  were  inclined  to  go  farther  than  him- 
self, and  he  had  not  betrayed  their  secrets. 
These  things  were  enough  to  hang  a  man. 
And  here  as  ever  there  loomed  a  plot  before 
official  eyes.     Hopes  were  held  out  to  Baillie 
if  he  would  confess  and  name  his  accom- 


64  terrors  of  tfje  Uafco 

plices,  but  he  smiled  a  refusal.  The  Earl 
of  Tarras,  his  relative,  le&s  constant,  was 
induced  to  make  incriminating  statements. 
Mackenzie  protested  at  the  trial  that  he  had 
given  his  evidence  without  hope  of  favour, 
but  the  Act  of  the  Estates  that  afterwards 
restored  Tarras  explicitly  notes  the  promises 
made  to  him.  The  fear  of  death  or  torture 
procured  some  other  scraps.  Carstairs — after- 
wards the  eminent  Churchman,  "Cardinal 
Carstairs  "  they  nicknamed  him  at  William's 
Court — after  a  prolonged  course  of  the 
thumbikins,  made  a  statement  on  condition 
that  he  was  not  to  be  called  as  a  witness. 
It  amounted  to  little,  and  that  little  was 
garbled.  Baillie  had  been  long  in  prison, 
he  was  stricken  with  mortal  sickness,  the 
Crown  must  haste,  else  death  would  rob  it  of 
its  victim.  He  had  but  twenty-four  hours' 
notice  of  his  trial.  Lockhart  was  the  regular 
counsel  for  the  defence  in  such  matters,  but 
both  Lockhart  and  Lauder  (afterwards  Lord 
Pountainhall)  were  specially  retained  by  the 
Crown  to  assist  Mackenzie  in  the  prosecu- 
tion. The  assize  had  been  carefully  packed. 


65 

Among  them  was  David  Graham,  Sheriff  of 
Galloway,  brother  to  Claverhouse,  afterwards 
one  of  the  actors  in  the  affair  of  the  Solway 
martyrs.  There  also  was  Bruce  of  Earl's 
Hall,  as  eminent  a  persecutor  as  Claverhouse 
himself,  and  there  was  my  Lord  Balcarres, 
at  least  as  fervent  a  Jacobite,  whose  memoirs 
give  that  side's  best  account  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. About  another  name  hangs  a  faint 
aroma  of  letters,  for  there  was  William 
Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  son  of  that 
"  Damon,  whose  songs  did  sometime  grace 
the  wandering  Esk,"  the  friend  and  host 
of  Ben  Jonson.  Such  was  the  Court 
before  which  the  prisoner  was  carried  from 
the  Tolbooth  to  the  Parliament  House  "  in 
his  nightgown."  His  cousin  and  sister-in- 
law,  the  Lady  Graden,  gave  him  cordial 
from  time  to  time  as  his  strength  sank  low. 
His  counsel  demanded  a  delay,  and  quoted 
my  Lord  Advocate's  writings  to  prove  the 
right  thereto,  but  the  request  was  promptly 
refused. 

A  strange  practice  prevailed  in  the  courts 
at  that  time  :  the  judges  must  pronounce  an 


66  terrors  of  tf)£  Hafo 

interlocutor  finding  the  libel  relevant.  Now, 
however  well  it  might  be  drawn,  it  was  a 
point  of  honour  to  allege  all  sorts  of  objec- 
tions ;  to  these  allegations  there  were  answers, 
and  there  followed  replies,  duplies,  triplies, 
quadruplies,  and  so  forth.  And  the  matter 
of  these  ? — long  extracts  from  the  civil  law, 
citations  from  "  eminent  criminalists,"  Carp- 
zovius,  Julius  Clarus,  Matheus,  Gothofredus, 
and  other  Dryasdusts,  whose  very  names  are 
long  forgotten.  There  were  references  to 
the  laws  of  France,  Spain,  and  heaven 
knows  where.  There  were  copious  illustra- 
tions from  biblical  as  well  as  classical  history, 
and  quotations  from  Scots  Acts,  wherein 
alone  was  materiality.  To  the  jury,  to  the 
spectators,  to  all  save  counsel  and  judges, 
it  must  have  seemed  hopeless  jargon,  but 
neither  my  Lord  Advocate  nor  his  opponents 
f  orgot  their  Continental  education ;  they 
went  round  the  mill  with  infinite  gusto  ;  re- 
member these  debates  were  verbatim  dictate 
to  the  clerks  of  the  Court  by  the  various 
speakers,  remember  that  everybody  knew 
they  must  end  in  smoke,  and  the  thing 


JWaefeen?fe     67 

strikes  you  as  ghastly  mockery.  At  last  it 
was  over,  my  lords  "  repelled  the  defences 
proponed  for  the  panel,"  and  the  Court  got 
seriously  to  work. 

The  witnesses  gave  reluctant  evidence. 
With  a  touch  of  quiet  humour  Baillie  said 
of  one  of  them,  "  I  pity  poor  Saridie  Munroe. 
I  saw  he  looked  at  me  with  a  rueful  coun- 
tenance." Carstairs1  depositions  were  pro- 
duced, and  though  strenuously  objected  to, 
"  were  admitted  as  adminicles."  The  winter 
night  was  far  advanced  when  my  Lord 
Advocate  summed  up  for  the  Crown.  If 
the  inquest  found  the  prisoner  innocent,  of 
course  there  was  no  plot.  "  All  the  noise 
we  have  heard  of  it  is  but  a  cheat,  the  King's 
judges  have  been  murderers,  all  the  wit- 
nesses have  been  knaves,  and  such  as  died 
for  it  have  been  martyrs."  He  dwelt  on 
the  panel's  connections.  "  Remember  you 
that  he  is  nephew  and  son-in-law  to  the  late 
Warriston,  bred  up  in  his  family,  and  under 
his  tutory."  The  law  of  treason  was  ex- 
plained and  illustrated,  not  overstated, 
because  that  was  impossible.  The  reluctance 


68  Errors  of  tf)e  Hato 

of  Carstairs  was  paraded  to  strengthen  the 
adminicles,  whoever  refuses  his  belief  "  does 
let  all  the  world  see  that  he  inclines  that  con- 
spiracy should  be  encouraged  and  allowed." 
His  concluding  sentence  explains  his  zeal, 
"and  I  have  insisted  so  much  on  this  pro- 
bation rather  to  convince  the  world  of  the 
conspiracy,  than  you  that  this  conspirator 
is  guilty "  :  the  suggestion  being  that  the 
Duke  of  York  was  the  object  of  a  wicked 
plot,  to  strengthen  which  an  official  account 
of  the  trial  was  m  published  both  in  London 
and  Edinburgh.  The  striking  incident  that 
follows  we  get  from  other  sources.  It  was 
now  midnight,  when  Jerviswood  craved  leave 
for  a  few  words.  For  the  jury  he  doubted 
not  they  would  act  as  men  of  honour.  The 
witnesses  had  said  things  not  quite  truthful, 
"  but  life  might  be  precious  to  some  .  .  . 
he  most  heartily  forgave  them  as  one  in 
probability  to  appear  in  some  hours  before 
the  tribunal  of  the  Great  Judge."  He  in- 
dignantly denied  the  charge  of  plotting  the 
King  or  Duke  of  York's  death,  and  then 
directly  addressing  Mackenzie,  he  reminded 


69 

him  that  he  had  privately  assured  him  of 
his  belief  that  those  charges  were  unfounded. 
"  How  then,  my  Lord,  come  you  to  lay  such 
a  stain  upon  me  with  so  much  violence  ? " 
Remember  how  it  was  told  of  Baillie  that 
"  he  had  a  sort  of  majesty  in  his  face,  and 
stateliness  in  his  carriage,"  and  you  under- 
stand the  impressive  change  of  position,  the 
accused  had  become  the  accuser,  the  doomed 
man  triumphed  over  his  proud  and  powerful 
adversary.  Every  eye  was  turned  on  my 
Lord  Advocate,  who  appeared  in  no  small 
confusion.  "  Jerviswood,"  he  stammered  out, 
"I  own  what  you  say,  my  thoughts  there 
were  as  a  private  man,"  but  he  now  acted 
as  public  prosecutor  by  direction  of  the 
Privy  Council.  "  If  your  lordship,"  returned 
Jerviswood  with  quiet  dignity,  "have  one 
conscience  for  yourself,  and  another  for  the 
Council,  pray  God  forgive  you,  I  do." 

Before  such  a  tribunal  how  to  doubt  the 
result  ?  yet  the  assize  debated  till  three  o'clock 
the  next  morning.  At  nine  the  formal 
verdict  of  "  clearly  proven  "  was  returned. 
The  hideous  formula  of  old  Scots  procedure 


70  ^Terrors  of  tfje  Hafo 

was  gone  through.  The  Dempster  repeated 
the  sentence,  Baillie  must  die  that  same 
afternoon  the  death  of  a  traitor,  his  head 
to  be  stuck  on  the  Netherbow,  his  limbs 
scattered  through  Scotland,  his  possessions 
forfeit,  his  blood  tainted,  which  "was  pro- 
nounced for  doom."  One  last  insult  re- 
mained :  the  Heralds  in  their  gorgeous 
trappings  advanced,  "  and  after  sound  of 
trumpet "  tore  the  Jerviswood  coat-of-arms, 
threw  it  in  his  face,  trampled  it  under  foot, 
and  declared  his  race  ignoble  ;  they  then 
proceeded  to  the  Mercat  Cross,  whereto  they 
affixed  the  arms  reversed,  with  the  bitter 
inscription,  "  The  arms  of  Mr.  Robert  Baillie, 
late  of  Jerviswood,  tray  tor."  But  for  Baillie 
the  bitterness  of  death  was  already  past. 
He  bade  farewell  to  his  judges  in  a  brief 
sentence  :  "  My  lords,  the  time  is  short,  the 
sentence  sharp,  but  I  thank  my  God  who 
has  made  me  as  fit  to  die  as  you  to  live." 
Back  in  prison  he  fell  into  "a  wonderful 
rapture  of  joy,"  the  haven  for  the  battered 
vessel  was  so  near.  One  last  work  he  must 
do — even  martyrdom  has  its  conventions — 


71 

it  was  the  solemn  duty  of  them  who  suffered 
in  the  troubles  to  leave  their  "  testimony." 
We  have  scores  of  such,  but  Baillie's  is 
unique :  it  is  brief,  moderate  in  tone,  chari- 
table, touched  with  a  light  as  from  beyond 
the  grave.  He  had  a  word  or  two  about  his 
family,  with  a  last  protest  against  the  charge 
of  disloyalty  which  had  stung  him  so  deeply. 
Yet  the  men  of  that  iron  age  had  larger 
interests  than  their  private  affairs,  however 
near,  and  most  of  what  he  said  was  for  his 
Kirk  and  his  Country.  His  time  was  come, 
the  prisoners  crowded  round  to  take  fare- 
well, 'twas  but  a  few  steps  down  the  High 
Street,  but  they  must  carry  him  out  in  a 
chair ;  "  when  at  the  scaffold  he  was  not  able 
to  go  up  the  ladder  without  support."  He 
said  some  words,  but  the  drums  were  beaten, 
presently  all  was  over.  That  Scots  place  of 
death  had  another  memory.  The  martyr- 
ology  of  the  Covenant  is  crowded  with 
names.  Courage  and  devotion  are  therein 
almost  commonplaces,  but  the  virtues  of 
sanity  and  moderation  are  sadly  lacking. 
This  is  a  single  record.  To  tell  of  these 


72  terrors  of  tyt  Hato 

things  is  to  tell  come  colui  die  piange  e  dice, 
yet  I  must  linger  for  a  little  round  that 
scaffold  to  note  three  figures,  without  which 
the  lesson  is  incomplete.  The  Lady  Graden 
walked  by  his  chair :  to  her  he  pointed  out 
Warriston's  window,  and  in  a  few  words 
made  solemn  mention  of  the  high  talk  he 
had  engaged  in  that  room  with  her  father 
who  had  trodden  the  same  via  dolorosa  some 
twenty  years  before.  She  "  saw  him  all 
quartered,  and  took  every  piece  and  wrapped 
it  up  in  some  linen  cloth,  with  more  than 
masculine  courage,"  says  even  the  hostile 
Lauder.  The  second  figure  is  a  lad  of 
twenty,  Baillie's  eldest  son  and  namesake. 
"  If  ye  have  a  strong  heart,"  said  his  father, 
"  ye  may  go  and  see  me  mangled  (dismem- 
bered)." The  boy's  nature  was  changed ; 
he  was  hereafter  noted  as  "  grave,  silent, 
thoughtful."  After  the  Eevolution  name 
and  estate  were  restored,  and  he  rose  to 
great  place  and  power.  The  names  of  the 
honourable  George  Baillie  of  Jerviswood, 
and  of  his  wife,  the  Lady  Grizell  Baillie 
(their  acquaintance  first  made  when,  a  child 


73 

of  twelve,  she  was  sent  by  her  father  to 
take  a  message  to  his  in  prison),  sweetest 
of  Scots  singers,  are  still  remembered. 
When  the  '15  ended  in  disaster,  he  "  pub- 
licly declared  himself  for  mercy,"  somewhat 
to  the  scandal  of  his  official  friends.  He 
simply  replied  that  he  had  been  bred  in  the 
school  of  affliction.  The  third  figure  is 
James  Stirling,  a  young  divinity  student, 
watching  from  among  the  crowd  the  sad 
procession  from  the  Tolbooth  to  the  scaffold. 
The  incidents  of  that  last  scene  remained 
fixed  in  his  memory.  Long  years  after  he 
described  it  to  Wodrow,  the  historian,  whose 
works  are  still  the  great  storehouse  of  all 
Covenanting  lore,  and  especially  of  such  in- 
cidents. 

I  pick  out  one  or  two  illustrative  extracts 
from  other  proceedings.  There  is  the  case 
of  Mr.  James  Skene,  brother  to  the  Laird  of 
Skene,  in  1680.  He  did  not  extenuate 
before  the  Council.  "  They  asked  me  why  I 
poisoned  my  ball.  I  told  them  I  wished  none 
of  them  to  recover  whom  I  shot."  Mac- 
kenzie (a  far-off  relative)  made  some  effort 


74  Errors  of  tfie  Hafo 

to  save  him,  but  the  offers  were  scornfully 
rejected,  and  the  Lord  Advocate  had  a 
special  portion  in  the  "  martyr's  "  last  testi- 
mony. "My  blood  is  upon  Mr.  George 
Mackenzie,  who  pleaded  for  my  condemna- 
tion." Donald  Cargill's  case,  in  1680,  was 
notable,  since  in  the  September  of  that  year, 
at  the  Torwood,  near  Stirling,  before  a  vast 
congregation,  he  had  solemnly  excommuni- 
cated and  delivered  up  to  Satan  Sir  George 
Mackenzie,  the  King's  Advocate,  on  nu- 
merous charges,  as  "  for  his  constant  pleading 
against  and  prosecuting  to  death  the  people 
of  God."  Also  "  for  his  ungodly,  erroneous, 
fantastic  and  blasphemous  tenets  printed  to 
the  world  in  his  pamphlets  and  pasquils." 
Mackenzie  might  have  cynically  answered 
that,  though  he  had  written  in  favour  of 
toleration,  he  observed  it  as  little  as  Cargill 
himself.  The  preacher  was  taken  and 
ended.  Mackenzie  stormed  a  good  deal  at 
his  trial,  and  was  reported  to  have  declared 
that  permitting  the  common  people  to  read 
the  Scriptures  did  more  evil  than  good. 
The  next  year  Marian  Harvey  and  Isobel 


75 

Alison,  young  women  in  the  position  of 
servants,  were  before  the  Council,  and  my 
Lord  Advocate's  discussions  merited  their 
reproof.  "  Why  did  ye  not  debate  these 
things  with  men  and  not  with  lasses  ? " 
One  remark  of  Mackenzie's  is  of  interest, 
"It  is  not  for  religion  we  are  pursuing  you, 
but  for  treason."  Neither  forgot  my  lord  in 
their  last  moments :  "  And  I  leave  my  blood 
on  Sir  George  Mackenzie  and  the  rest  of 
that  bloody  court,"  declared  Alison.  "  I 
leave  my  blood  on  the  criminal  lords  as  they 
call  themselves,  and  especially  that  excom- 
municate tyrant  George  Mackenzie,  the 
Advocate,"  echoed  Harvey.  The  thing  was 
often  grotesque.  "  Sir,  you  must  be  a  great 
liar."  So,  my  lord  to  Hackston,  one  of 
those  implicated  in  the  killing  of  Sharp. 
"  Sir,  you  must  be  a  far  greater  liar,"  was 
the  retort. 

To  blame  Mackenzie  for  the  use  of  torture 
were  unfair  ;  it  was  part  of  the  machinery  of 
Scots  procedure ;  it  was  used  after  the 
Revolution.  Yet  there  are  individual  nota- 
bilia.  Mackenzie  threatens  to  tear  out  one 


76  terrors  of  tfcc  Hafo 

prisoner's  tongue  with  a  pair  of  pincers  if 
he  will  not  answer  readily.  The  torturer  is 
about  to  apply  the  boot  to  an  ailing  lad  ;  the 
surgeon  takes  Mackenzie  aside,  urges  the 
prisoner  cannot  endure  it,  and  that  it  is  un- 
necessary, as  he  has  owned  to  sufficient  for 
conviction.  My  Lord  indifferently  assents 
and  orders  him  the  thumbikins !  Also  there 
were  gifts  of  various  forfeitures ;  thus 
William  Scott  of  Harden  was  fined  a  large 
sum  because  his  wife  was  at  a  conventicle. 
Mackenzie  got  a  gift  of  the  fine,  which  he 
rigorously  exacted  with  interest,  and  at  one 
time  Claverhouse  (whose  relations  with 
Lady  Mackenzie  were  favourite  subject  for 
the  scandalmongers  of  the  day)  notes  his 
discontent  that  in  some  division  of  spoil 
nothing  had  come  to  him.  Thus  the  rage 
when  any  person  of  means  escaped.  "  Has 
the  villain  played  me  this  trick  ?  "  he  said, 
when  the  first  Earl  of  Loudoun  died. 

In  March  1684,  Campbell  of  Cessnock 
had  an  escape  little  less  than  miraculous. 
The  charge  was  treason.  Lockhart  was 
again  ordered  to  assist  Mackenzie,  the  wit- 


33IuitJg  gfobocat*  JWacfcen?t*  77 
nesses  had  been  carefully  precognosed,  but 
when  in  the  box  they,  from  fear,  conscience, 
or  confusion,  knew  nothing.  Mackenzie 
was  beside  himself  with  rage,  there  was 
frantic  applause  in  court.  "Never  was 
such  a  Protestant  rore,"  he  declared,  "  except 
at  the  trial  of  Lord  Shaftesbury."  William 
Fletcher  was  junior  advocate  for  the  defence  ; 
he  irritated  Mackenzie,  who  burst  out  on 
him,  "  I  hate  you,  William  Fletcher,  I  hate 
you,  I  swear  I  hate  you,  ye  speak  nonsense." 
He  pressed  the  witnesses  so  unfairly  that  the 
inquest  objected,  when  he  fell  foul  of  them. 
The  result  was  an  acquittal,  there  was  more 
applause.  Mackenzie  said  the  jury  had 
joined  in  it,  and  had  them  up  before  the 
Privy  Council.  They  retorted  "  that  there 
were  none  who  shouted  more  than  My 
Lord  Advocate  himself."  "  It  was  his  part 
to  do  so,"  was  the  somewhat  lame  reply. 

One  last  case,  not  religious  or  political, 
and  reported  by  Lauder  of  Fountainhall, 
who  in  many  points  admired  Mackenzie. — 
In  1682  James  Douglas  was  condemned  for 
having  killed  his  stepbrother.  Before  the 


78  terrors  of  tf)e 

end  he  confessed  to  other  crimes  which 
involved  complete  forfeiture.  Mackenzie 
tried  a  curious  legal  trick.  Let  there  be  a 
new  trial  and  forfeiture  that  this  estate 
might  go  as  Mackenzie  wished.  A  reprieve 
was  obtained  and  Douglas  again  placed  at 
the  bar.  He  had  found  out  what  was  in- 
tended and  retracted  his  confession.  For 
once  technicalities  were  urged  with  effect  in 
the  panel's  favour.  The  jury,  knowing  he 
must  die  on  the  old  charge,  would  not  con- 
vict him  on  this.  Mackenzie  was  mortified 
and  showed  it ;  he  threatened  them  with  an 
assize  of  error,  he  protested  that  they  were 
worse  "  than  the  seditious  ignoramus  juries 
at  London."  He  suggested  "  Lithgow's 
sogers  to  cool  their  fanatiques,"  but,  adds 
Lauder  significantly,  "these  transports  of 
passion  were  smiled  at." 

For  completeness  I  must  mention  the 
trial  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  son  of  the  Mar- 
quis for  whom  Mackenzie  had  appeared. 
Argyll  had  taken  the  test  prescribed  by  the 
Act  of  1681,  with  a  qualification,  "  so  far  as 
consistent  in  itself  with  the  Protestant 


79 

religion."  This  was  twisted  into  leasing 
making,  wherefor  he  was  tried  in  December 
1681.  Mackenzie  prosecuted,  and  of  course 
the  verdict  was  "  Guilty."  The  Government 
deferred  execution  and  the  prisoner  was 
(probably)  allowed  to  escape.  He  led  the 
Scots  branch  of  the  Monmouth  rising  in 
1683.  He  was  taken  and  beheaded  on  the 
old  sentence.  Mackenzie  is  said  to  have 
directed  this  from  a  feeling  of  tenderness  to 
the  Argylls.  He  judged  the  former  verdict 
unsound,  it  might  be  upset  and  the  for- 
feiture reversed.  Argyll's  last  proceedings 
were  treason  too  plain  to  make  that 
possible. 

Each  of  those  trials  was  a  drama  or  rather 
a  tragedy  of  surpassing  interest  to  the 
nation.  The  Justiciary  Court  was  crammed 
with  an  eager  audience.  A  still  greater 
crowd  gathered  round  the  Cross  or  filled  the 
Grassmarket  to  witness  the  last  scene.  True, 
it  was  dangerous  to  express  sympathy  ;  one 
man  at  least  had  done  so  to  his  undoing. 
True  the  martyrs  were  cut  short  in  their 
testifying  by  the  soldiers'  drums,  but  what 


80  terrors  of  tfje  Hafo 

they  said  had  been  committed  to  writing  or 
dropped  into  friendly  ears.  The  story  was 
told  by  the  fireside  in  many  a  country  town, 
in  many  a  lonely  farmhouse  it  became  a 
hallowed  tradition  handed  down  from  genera- 
tion to  generation,  and  Mackenzie  was  not 
forgotten.  At  trial  and  examination  he  was 
much  in  evidence.  Even  where  Claverhouse 
was  the  hand  that  struck,  his  seemed  the 
brain  that  plotted.  And  now  do  you  under- 
stand his  title  ?  He  was  little  concerned  ; 
he  and  his  fellows  repaid  hate  with  con- 
temptuous scorn.  These  men  were  "fana- 
tics." To  Mackenzie  that  meant  something 
too  bad  to  live.  The  word  was  often  in  his 
mouth.  John  Erskine  of  Carnock,  whose 
Presbyterian  sympathies  were  known,  once 
consulted  him  about  some  law  business, 
when  the  Advocate  took  occasion  to  explain 
his  rule  of  conduct.  "He  loved  not  to  stand 
on  pinpoints  with  God,  and  also  he  was  for 
liberty  and  loved  good  company,  tho'  he 
was  loyal  and  no  phanatick  in  advancing 

80." 

Old  Edinburgh  was  so  packed  together, 


81 

that  odd  things  touched ;  the  noise  of  the 
crowd  round  the  gallows  must  have  invaded 
my  Lord's  study  windows.  Eosehaugh's 
Close  (afterwards  Strichen's),  where  he  had 
his  town  house,  was  but  a  little  way  down 
the  High  Street  on  the  south  side.  But 
Mackenzie  called  Edinburgh  the  most  un- 
wholesome and  unpleasant  town  in  Scotland. 
He  was  glad  to  escape  to  his  country  house 
at  Shank,  itself  a  place  of  distinguished 
memories,  ten  miles  off — a  charming  spot 
by  the  head  waters  of  the  South  Esk,  sur- 
rounded by  ancient  trees  and  pleasant  fields ! 
But  wherever  "  That  noble  wit  of  Scotland  " 
(as  Dryden  called  him)  was  he  was  fully 
occupied.  During  these  passionate  years  he 
wrote  and  read  with  amazing  zeal.  The 
chief  scholars  on  the  Continent  were  his  cor- 
respondents, English  men  of  letters  were  his 
friends,  in  the  Council  his  scholarship  was 
valued.  Once  they  must  communicate  with 
the  Dutch  Government,  and  Mackenzie  had 
to  put  their  words  into  Latin.  His  Latin 
served  well  enough,  though  in  the  next 
century  it  called  forth  a  "  solemn  sneer " 

F 


82  terrors  of  rfje  ILafo 

from  Dr.  Johnson.  One  curious  piece  of 
work  was  his.  The  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  and 
other  English  scholars  attacked  the  line  of 
mythical  Scots  kings.  Mackenzie  replied 
with  a  ponderous  treatise  which  excited 
much  interest.  St.  Asaph's  presumption  in 
murdering  so  many  of  his  Majesty's  ancestors 
almost  amounted  to  a  criminal  offence.  With 
it  all  Mackenzie  found  time  to  play  the  ac- 
complished courtier ;  he  was  well  known  at 
St.  James's,  and  there  were  occasional 
glimpses  of  royalty  at  Holyrood.  James  VII., 
as  the  Scots  called  him,  when  Duke  of  York, 
was  twice  in  Edinburgh  as  Lord  High  Com- 
missioner. With  him  were  his  wife  and 
Lady  Anne,  afterwards  Queen.  There  were 
high  jinks  at  Holyrood :  masked  balls,  play- 
acting, brilliant  parties,  tea,  golf,  tennis.  No 
one  was  more  welcome  than  Mackenzie.  We 
picture  him  then  as  Kneller's  portrait  on  the 
walls  of  the  Parliament  House  shows  him  to 
us  to-day,  the  wig  of  long  black  hair,  the 
keen,  clear  shaven,  legal  face,  the  refined, 
aristocratic,  a  trifle  haughty  yet  not  unkindly 
expression,  all  this  with  the  stately  Cavalier 


gl&bocate  Jftacfecn^te     83 

dress  made,  you  believe,  a  highly  impressive 
figure ;  a  brilliant  talker  too,  his  tongue 
rather  addicted  to  caustic  sayings,  as  when 
one  noble  succeeds  another  as  official  head 
of  the  law.  "  The  king  every  two  years," 
said  my  Lord  Advocate,  "  gives  me  the 
trouble  of  a  new  Justice-General  to  breed  in 
the  Criminal  Court."  No  wonder  Mackenzie 
got  a  little  confused  with  so  many  avocations. 
Claverhouse,  in  a  letter  to  Queensberry 
(March  1,  1682),  touches  him  off  with  a 
certain  amusing  impatience.  "My  good 
friend  the  Advocate,  who  wrote  to  me  very 
kindly,  but  very  little,  in  return  of  any- 
thing I  desired  of  him,  but  I  know  he 
ordinarily  loses  the  papers  and  forgets  the 
business  before  he  has  time  to  make  any 
return." 

The  accession  of  James  VII.  in  1685 
began  the  end.  The  new  King  was  a  de- 
voted Roman  Catholic,  but  to  relax  the  laws 
against  his  faith  he  must  cease  the  Presby- 
terian persecution.  Mackenzie  had  a  con- 
science, he  was  as  much  against  "  papists  " 
as  against  "fanatics."  James  used  every 


84  terrors  of  tfje  Hafo 

effort  to  win  his  support.  He  failed,  and  in 
a  passion  dismissed  his  Advocate,  although 
he  was  thought  "  the  brightest  man  in  the 
nation  " ;  the  younger  Stair  was  put  in  his 
place,  but  the  change  worked  ill,  so  Stair 
was  made  a  judge  and  Mackenzie  reinstated. 
His  opponent  Lockhart  a  little  before  had 
been  made  Justice-General,  only  to  fall  a 
victim,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  Revolution, 
to  the  pistol  of  an  aggrieved  suitor.  It  is 
worth  noting  that,  after  Mackenzie  was  re- 
appointed  Lord  Advocate,  he  wrote  to  San- 
croft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  con- 
gratulate him  on  his  acquittal  in  the  famous 
Seven  Bishops  case. 

And  then  came  the  Revolution ;  the  Estates 
were  summoned  at  Edinburgh,  and  the 
months  before  their  meeting  were  full  of 
plot  and  intrigue.  Mackenzie  threw  in  his 
lot  with  the  lost  cause.  The  position  was 
awkward ;  the  Castle,  under  the  Duke  of 
Gordon,  still  held  for  James,  but  the  town 
was  crammed  with  wild  Whigs  from  the 
west,  "seditious  Bothwell  Brig  faces,"  to 
maintain  the  new  order.  As  Mackenzie 


23lufog  ^tfbocatt  Jftacfeen?tt     85 

and  Claverhouse  trod  those  familiar  streets 
they  met  scowling  and  threatening  looks, 
and  heard  threats  both  loud  and  deep.  A 
plot  for  their  assassination  was  suspected. 
In  vain  they  appealed  to  the  Estates  for 
protection.  In  the  midst  of  these  troubles 
Mackenzie,  as  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  formally 
inaugurated  the  Advocates'  Library.  He 
had  worked  at  its  foundation  for  years,  and 
the  reward  of  its  success  lights  up  his  last 
public  days.  In  a  stately  Latin  oration  he 
discussed  law  and  letters,  books  and  learn- 
ing, and  then  turned  himself  to  strike  one 
last  blow  for  the  old  order.  Mackenzie  was 
addressing  the  Convention,  urging  an  ad- 
journment to  some  place  beyond  reach  of 
Castle  guns  and  Rabble's  shouts,  when  news 
was  brought  of  Dundee's  dramatic  exit  from 
Edinburgh,  of  which  Scott's  ballad  so  well 
preserves  the  spirit.  At  that  very  instant 
he  was  in  conference  with  Gordon  on  the 
Castle  Rock.  All  was  commotion,  the  doors 
were  locked,  and  Mackenzie  and  some 
others  placed  under  temporary  restraint; 
but  Dundee  moved  northward,  the  Castle 


86  terrors  of  tfje  Hato 

batteries  were  silent,  and  the  Whigs  had  it 
all  their  own  way. 

On  April  4,  1689,  the  Estates  declared 
that  James  had  forfeited  the  Crown. 
Mackenzie  was  the  chief  of  a  minority  of 
five.  He  came  not  again  to  the  Conven- 
tion. His  public  life  was  over.  In  the 
crash  of  his  fortunes  the  future  was  dark 
and  confused,  he  had  some  thought  of  re- 
suming practice,  but  at  last  recognised  that 
his  only  safety  lay  in  flight.  His  exit  was 
not  less  fitting  than  Dundee's.  That  wild 
spirit,  led  by  the  shade  of  Montrose,  sought 
the  Highland  glens,  and  was  happy  in  a 
soldier's  death  at  the  close  of  a  brilliant 
victory  ;  so  the  warrior  ended.  The  scholar 
turned  as  instinctively  to  Oxford,  the  stately 
haunt  of  letters  and  learning.  The  night 
before  he  left  the  Scots  capital  he  was  noted 
alone  at  midnight  in  the  Greyfriars  Church- 
yard. The  very  dust  might  seem  hostile : 
there  lay  Buchanan,  whom  he  had  attempted 
to  confute  ;  there  lay  many  of  his  victims ; 
a  brief  time  before,  Lockhart,  his  professed 
rival,  had  been  buried  in  the  spot  chosen  by 


gftbocate  jjflacfcen?te    87 

Mackenzie  for  his  own  grave.  The  night 
wind  among  the  tombs  must  have  whispered 
strange  things  to  the  ruined  statesman ! 
He  left  Edinburgh,  his  head  erect,  his  con- 
science clear.  "  I  never  did  anything  that 
deserved  absconding.  I  punisht  crimes  but 
committed  none,  and  yet  I  will  not  return 
till  things  be  settled,  for  others  may  want 
justice  though  I  want  not  innocence." 
Oxford  was  learned  and  loyal,  it  received 
the  Cavalier  scholar  with  open  arras.  What 
a  contrast  Mackenzie  must  have  found 
between  its  quiet  humdrum  life  and  those 
passionate  days  in  Edinburgh,  so  crowded 
with  action  and  emotion !  He  brooded  over 
the  times  not  without  result.  Almost  his 
last  literary  effort  was  a  vindication  of  the 
Government  of  Scotland  during  the  reign  of 
King  Charles  II.  I  quote  one  incident  from 
those  days.  Once  he  dined  with  his  old 
opponent,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph.  Another 
opponent,  Evelyn,  report?  an  extraordinary 
story  told  by  Mackenzie  of  how  an  ingenious 
Jesuit  had  introduced  Presbytery  into  Scot- 
land in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  had 


88  terrors  of  tfce  Unto 

invented  extempore  prayer  apparently  as  a 
reductio  ad  absurdum  of  the  Protestant  faith. 
(The  likeness  of  this  to  a  famous  passage  in 
Lothair  has  been  several  times  noted.)  The 
last  months  of  Mackenzie's  life  were  spent  at 
Westminster,  where  he  died  May  8,  1691. 
The  body  was  taken  to  Scotland,  it  lay  in 
state  in  Holyrood,  it  was  interred  in  decent 
pomp  in  Greyfriars,  the  various  learned 
societies  following  it  to  the  grave.  A  brass 
plate  on  the  coffin  lauded  him  among  much 
else  as  patrice  decus  religionis  mndex  justitice 
propugnator,  it  described  him  comitatis 
exemplar  eruditorum  Mcecenas  eruditicimus. 

His  works  were  collected  and  published 
in  1716  by  the  learned  Euddiman  in  two 
stately,  nay,  sumptuous  folios.  Polite  letters 
in  Scotland  have  been  on  the  Cavalier  side, 
and  many  Latin  poems  elegantly  lamented 
his  end  and  lauded  his  many  gifts,  and  yet, 
save  a  phrase  or  two,  all  are  dead.  If  you 
turn  over  Lord  Dreghorn's  Reports  you  will 
find  he  was  extensively  quoted  in  the  Scots 
Criminal  Courts  through  the  next  century, 
but  those  curious  technical  debates  are  now 


t3Iufog  gfobocate  .|ttacfan?ft     89 

antiquated.  Only  a  fragment  of  his  Memoirs 
preserved  by  a  romantic  chance  remains. 
His  heirs  in  all  probability  meant  to  sup- 
press them.  If  a  complete  copy  lurk  any- 
where, what  a  find ! 

The  sinister  legend  of  his  tomb  perished 
not.  It  was  rumoured  that  he  had  died  in 
fearful  agony,  "  all  the  passages  of  his  body 
running  blood."  The  pious  pilgrims,  who 
for  two  centuries  visited  the  graves  of  the 
martyrs,  forgot  not  to  gaze  with  horror  on 
the  stately  mausoleum  of  their  persecutor, 
within  which  his  spirit  could  find  no  rest,  as 
the  famous  couplet  already  quoted  expressed. 
A  hundred  years  ago  a  lad  named  Turner, 
condemned  to  the  gallows  for  burglary, 
escaped  from  prison  ;  some  confederate  had 
procured  a  key  of  Rosehaugh's  vault  and 
therein  he  harboured  as  the  one  place  in 
Edinburgh  which  no  one  would  rashly 
approach.  He  had  been  a  Heriot  boy,  and 
some  lads  from  that  Hospital,  greatly  daring, 
carried  him  supplies  of  food.  Turner 
escaped  unhurt  to  foreign  parts.  The  final 
touch  to  the  Mackenzie  legend  came  from  a 


90  terrors  of  tf)t  Uafo 

friendly  hand.  Scott's  sympathies  were 
more  for  the  Cavalier  than  the  Covenanter, 
yet  Mackenzie  appears  twice  in  his  pages  a 
gifted  yet  sombre  and  guilty  figure.  He  is 
the  "  bluidy  advocate  Mackenzie  "  of  "  Wan- 
dering Willie,"  and  Davie  Deans  is  not  less 
emphatic.  "  Did  he  not  die  and  gang  to  his 
place  as  the  Bluidy  Mackenzie  ?  And  winna 
he  be  kend  by  that  name  sae  long  as  there's 
a  Scots  tongue  to  speak  the  word  ?  "  And 
so,  though  Mackenzie  was  learned  and  loyal, 
though  he  was  faithful  to  a  fallen  cause, 
though  he  gave  Scotland,  his  country,  a 
great  library,  though  he  is  blamed  for  much 
unjustly,  it  seems  vain  to  argue  or  even  try 
to  remember  all  this.  He  is  the  Bluidy 
Mackenzie  then  and  since  and  for  all  time. 


©ttgtnal  Witir  of 
l^etmtston 


©ttgtnal  515Eett  of 


THE  Edinburgh  of  the  early  years  of 
George  III.  was  very  different  from  the  prim, 
regular,  spick-and-span  town  which  the  repu- 
table citizen  of  to-day  inhabits.  It  was  still 
mainly  hemmed  within  the  Flodden  Wall, 
hastily  thrown  up  after  the  defeat  as  a  de- 
fence against  English  invasion.  Thus,  it 
consisted  of  the  High  Street  on  the  steep 
ridge  leading  up  to  the  Castle  Rock  ;  of  the 
Cowgate  in  the  hollow  to  the  south ;  of  the 
narrow  and  tortuous  wynds  and  closes  run- 
ning up  to  the  High  Street  on  one  side  and 
on  the  other  down  to  the  edge  of  the  Nor' 
Loch ;  of  the  Grassmarket ;  and,  beyond 
the  ancient  limit,  of  the  Canongate,  which 
continued  the  main  thoroughfare  down  to 
Holyrood.  Some  sixty  thousand  indwellers 


94  terrors  of  tfje  Uafo 

were  squeezed  into  these  narrow  (one  by 
one-quarter  mile)  limits.  The  town  grew 
upward,  not  outward.  The  houses  were 
huge  "  lands,"  from  six  to  ten  storeys,  where 
poor  folk  huddled  at  the  top,  whilst  the 
wealthier  citizens  dwelt  below.  "  Each  in- 
habitable space  was  crowded  like  the  under- 
deck  of  a  ship,"  says  Scott ;  but  even  ships 
are  not  overcrowded  nowadays,  and  "  like 
herrings  in  a  barrel  "  seems  an  apter  simile. 
Scarce  a  room  in  the  city  but  held  its  open 
or  concealed  bed.  Sanitary  arrangements 
were  conspicuous,  even  for  that  era,  by  their 
primitive  rudeness.  Water  was  scarce,  and 
was  laboriously  conveyed  up  those  endless 
stairs  on  the  backs  of  caddies,  as  the  curious 
and  distinctive  class  of  water-bearers  (though 
the  title  was  not  theirs  alone)  was  called. 
Slops,  house-refuse,  filthy  bits  of  all  sorts, 
were  hurled  on  the  street !  "  Gardy-loo  "  (a 
corruption,  the  learned  affirm,  of  Gare  & 
I'eau  /)  yelled  the  housewife  into  the  night 
as  she  stood  at  her  open  window,  the  odo- 
riferous bucket  poised  in  her  hand.  And 
when  that  voice  from  the  clouds  smote  the 


Original  agHrir  of  f^ermiston    95 

ear  of  the  belated  wayfarer,  how  it  sped  his 
lagging  steps !  "  Haud  yer  han',  guidwife, 
till  I  win  by,"  was  his  piteous  entreaty.  Ah, 
too  often  the  splash  "  with  shame  and  with 
surprise :  froze  his  swift  speech  "  ;  and  he 
needs  must  stagger  onward  an  object  to  be 
smelt  in  the  dark,  an  unsavoury  admonition 
of  the  need  for  wary  walking.  The  streets 
were  horribly  unclean.  Pigs  held  continual 
revel  therein,  undisturbed  save  by  frolicsome 
children,  who,  mounting  their  backs,  drove 
them  hither  and  thither  spite  their  shrill 
grunting.  The  stranger  scoffed,  but  the 
citizen  was  unmoved.  "  The  clartier  the 
cosier  "  was  an  apophthegm  oft  in  his  mouth. 
A  sagacious  burgher  permanently  enriched 
his  lands  by  carting  thereto  a  quantity  of 
street  scourings,  so  potent  was  the  concen- 
trated essence  of  filth.  The  upper  storeys 
of  the  houses  overlapped,  and  as  the  closes 
at  the  bottom  were  far  from  broad,  the  op- 
posing mansions  almost  touched ;  thus  the 
rooms  were  imperfectly  lighted,  and  a  con- 
tinuous twilight  mantled  the  universal  dis- 
array. The  ways  of  life  were  simple.  Two 


96  Errors  of  tftf  Hafo 

o'clock  was  the  favourite  dinner-hour ;  sup- 
per, the  great  social  meal,  was  often  taken 
out  of  doors.  The  tavern  was  the  sole 
meeting- place.  In  the  tavern  business  was 
done  by  day  ;  in  the  tavern  clubs  mustered 
o'  nights,  for  such  "  high  jinks "  as  Guy 
Mannering  never  knew.  Allan  Ramsay  and 
Fergusson  have  preserved  us  pictures  of 
these  dens — Fortune's,  the  Star  and  Garter, 
Douglas's,  John  Dowie's,  and  the  rest — 
from  which  light  and  air  were  carefully 
excluded.  And  nearly  everybody  drank  too 
much,  washed  too  little,  swore  horribly,  and 
lived  roughly.  Some  made  long  prayers, 
which  changed  their  habits  no  whit. 

Despite  it  all,  Old  Edinburgh  was  an 
amusing  place.  Life  was  anything  but  dull, 
everybody  knew  everybody  else,  there  was 
much  good  fellowship,  there  was  the  best  of 
olaret,  the  best  of  talk,  and  the  best  of 
stories.  The  pathetic  and  heroic  memories 
of  the  place,  its  superb  position  and  sur- 
roundings, kindled  the  imagination.  There 
was  an  old  and  famous  aristocracy,  whose 
very  names  were  instinct  with  romance. 


Original  SBtir  of  f^ermtston     97 

Moreover,  there  was  high  breeding,   there 
was  learning,  there  was  genius,  for  in  that 
strange  city  there  lived  during  the  second 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  men  who  have 
profoundly  influenced  the  thought  and  litera- 
ture of  the  world.     Here  as  contemporaries 
were  Adam  Smith,  the  political  economist ; 
David  Hume,  the  philosopher;  Walter  Scott, 
the  future  novelist.     Could  living  London 
furnish  such  a  trio  ?     Burns  and  Smollett 
were  "  residenters,"    though    not   citizens ; 
and  there  were  crowds  of  lesser  and  yet  dis- 
tinguished names :  Allan  Ramsay,  Fergusson, 
Home,  Blair,  Henry  Mackenzie,  Henry  Rae- 
burn,  Creech,  Principal  Robertson,  the  two 
Tytlers,  Kames,  Monboddo,  Dugald  Stuart, 
James  Boswell,  to  name  but  these.     And  in 
this  town  and  among  these  men  there  moved 
the  portentous  figure  of  Robert  Macqueen, 
Lord  Braxfield,  Senator  of  the  College  of 
Justice,  and  as  Lord  Justice  Clerk  President 
of    the   Court   of    Justiciary,   the  Weir  of 
Hermiston    of    Stevenson's   unfinished   ro- 
mance.    His  day  witnessed  a  social  revolu- 
tion.    The  city  overran  its  ancient  bounds 

G 


98  terrors  of  tfje  Hato 

Brown  Square  (to-day  replaced  by  Chambers 
Street)  was  built  in  1763-64,  George  Square 
a  year  or  so  after;  and  in  1767  Edinburgh 
leapt  across  the  ravine  to  the  north,  and  the 
New  Town  arose  in  formal  order.  Before 
the  end  of  the  century  the  old  mode  of  life 
was  given  up  by  the  more  prosperous  classes. 
There  was  more  space,  more  light,  more 
cleanliness,  an  advance  in  every  sort  of  re- 
finement. Braxfield  removed  to  George 
Square :  that  was  his  sole  concession  to 
the  newer  time.  He  was  middle-aged  when 
the  change  began  ;  he  was  formed  by  Old 
Edinburgh,  by  its  wit,  its  learning,  its  pre- 
judice, its  moral  and  physical  grime,  its 
caustic  and  racy  speech,  and  it  is  as  a  rep- 
resentative of  Old  Edinburgh  that  he  abides 
to-day. 

His  origin  was  provincial.  His  grand- 
father was  gardener  to  the  Earl  of  Selkirk, 
and  his  father  was  made  a  lawyer  that  he 
might  be  Baron-Bailie  to  his  lordship.  He 
prospered,  became  Sheriff  of  Lanarkshire, 
and  acquired  the  estate  of  Braxfield,  near 
Lanark.  His  eldest  son  was  first  educated 


Original  SSUir  of  ^etmfeton     99 

there,  then  served  a  full  term  of  apprentice- 
ship with  a  Writer  to  the  Signet,  during  the 
latter  part  whereof  he  studied  at  the  Uni- 
versity for  the  Scots  Bar,  and  at  twenty-two 
was  admitted  Advocate,  February  14,  1744. 
A  lawyer  and  the  son  of  a  lawyer,  instru- 
ments of  sasine,  feu  charters,  all  the  quaint 
terminology  of  Scots  jurisprudence  were 
familiar  to  him  from  his  cradle.  That  juris- 
prudence derived  from  two  sources  :  the  old 
Feudal  Law  and  the  Civil  or  Eoman  Law,  as 
these  had  been  modified  by  the  practice  of 
the  country  during  the  centuries  of  its 
history.  Now,  of  the  field  of  Feudal  Law 
Braxfield  knew  every  inch,  and  he  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  Civil  Law  in  all  its 
practical  applications;  so  that  Lord  Cock- 
burn,  who  cordially  detested  him,  styles  him 
the  best  lawyer  of  his  time.  Commercial 
law  became  of  importance  late  in  his  career, 
and  his  grasp  of  it  was  not  so  thorough ;  yet 
even  here,  so  Cockburn  assures  us,  he  was 
only  second  to  Islay  Campbell,  President  of 
the  Court.  His  rise  was  not  rapid.  It  is 
not  for  ten  or  fifteen  years  after  his  admis- 


100  terrors  of  tf)e  Hafo 

sion  that  his  name  begins  to  occur  in  the 
Faculty  Decisions,  those  excellent  contem- 
porary law  reports.  He  was  not  one  of 
that  hereditary  nobility  of  the  Robe  which 
had  then  possession  of  the  Faculty  of  Advo- 
cates. His  uncouth  manner,  his  brusqueness 
and  plain  speaking,  were  against  him.  A 
story  of  his  early  career  tells  how  he  queried 
some  Lord  Ordinary's  authority  for  a 
ridiculous  proposition,  and  was  answered 
"Lord  Stair."  "Na,  my  lord,  that  can 
never  be,  for  there's  nae  nonsense  to  be 
found  in  Stair."  Only  by  degrees  were 
agents  made  aware  of  his  profound  legal 
knowledge  ;  the  sense  wherewith  he  put 
his  points ;  the  pertinacity  wherewith 
he  stuck  to  them ;  the  direct,  unadorned 
rhetoric  wherewith  he  carried  them  to  their 
logical  conclusions.  At  that  time  written 
pleadings  were  much  in  vogue.  The  appeal 
from  the  Lord  Ordinary  to  the  Inner  House 
was  by  a  long  petition,  compounded  of  facts 
and  arguments,  and  followed  by  answers  of 
equal  complexity.  I  have  read  several  of 
Macqueen's  (temp.  1767-71).  They  are 


Original  With  of  f^ermfeton  101 

direct,  vigorous,  pointed ;  but  with  such  a 
method  it  takes  an  unknown  man  a  long 
time  to  discover  his  qualities  to  the  world. 
But  his  opportunity  came.  The  '45  had  a 
pecular  influence  on  Scots  law.  Many  estates 
incurred  forfeiture.  Ingenious  and  often 
successful  attempts  were  made  by  every 
species  of  legal  device  to  save  those  for- 
feitures. Many  conundrums  in  the  law  of 
Heritable  Property  must  be  unriddled  by  the 
Supreme  Court  (the  failure  of  the  City  of 
Glasgow  Bank  produced  a  similar  state  of 
things  in  company  law);  Macqueen  was 
Counsel  for  the  Crown.  Thus  he  rose  into 
public  notice  at  the  same  time  that  he  per- 
fected his  knowledge,  and  made  it  thoroughly 
available  for  current  use.  Yet  his  lore, 
though  deep,  was  narrow.  He  knew  Scots 
law  profoundly,  but  he  had  no  other  learning. 
It  was  said  that  after  his  law-books  he  had 
probably  read  nothing  but  filth.  He  spent 
all  his  vacation  time  on  his  estate  at  Brax- 
field,  where  he  farmed  with  diligence  and 
success,  and  enjoyed  the  rude  pleasures  of 
the  old  Scots  laird.  He  had  no  sympathy 


102  Errors  of  t&t  Uafo 

with,  the  cultured  Edinburgh  society  of  his 
time,  the  men  whose  work  was  to  delight  or 
inform  future  generations.  Hume  was 
Keeper  of  the  Advocates  Library,  and  must 
have  handed  him  many  a  book.  His  keen 
contemptuous  glance  may  have  rested  on 
Adam  Smith's  shambling  figure  and  vacant 
look.  The  Scotts  were  his  neighbours  in 
George  Square.  But  the  future  was  to 
these  men.  His  was  the  present,  and  his 
ignorance  was  no  bar  to  professional  ad- 
vancement. Law  is  a  jealous  mistress  ;  wide 
culture  is  but  a  clog  to  them  that  serve  her ; 
Coke,  not  Bacon,  is  the  great  name  in 
English  jurisprudence.  But  Macqueen  had 
other  than  legal  qualities.  He  was  a  boon 
companion  of  the  choicest,  a  magnificent 
toper,  though  on  that  strong  head,  that  iron 
frame,  that  seasoned  stomach,  no  potation 
took  effect.  His  talk  was  agreeably  com- 
pounded of  curses,  "  sculduddery,"  and  per- 
sonalities. Legal  consultation,  like  other 
business,  was  done  in  the  tavern.  Here, 
over  a  long  succession  of  drams,  the  client 
told  his  story,  the  agent  made  his  sugges- 


Original  <52Rnr  of  f^ermiston   103 

tions,  the  Advocate  gave  his  opinion.  One 
can  imagine  the  delight  with  which  the 
Bonnet-laird,  whose  "  ganging  plea,1'  in  one 
shape  or  other,  had  tried  the  temper  of  "  a' 
the  Fifteen "  again  and  again,  must  have 
seen  this  jovial  counsel  seize,  as  by  art 
magic,  on  the  salient  features  of  the  case, 
and  explain  with  admirable  brevity  and 
clearness,  in  an  accent  broader  than  his  own, 
and  with  a  delightful  garnishment  of  oaths, 
exactly  how  things  were,  and  exactly  what 
things  ought  to  be  done;  so  that  in  the 
future  all  was  plain  sailing.  Nor  did  Mac- 
queen's  services  stop  here.  Having  supplied 
his  client  with  a  choice  store  of  indecent 
anecdote  wherewith  to  delight  the  country- 
side for  the  next  twelvemonth,  he,  like  as 
not,  closed  the  evening,  or  the  morning,  by 
drinking  both  client  and  agent  under  the 
table  just  in  time  to  allow  him  to  repair  to 
the  Parliament  House  to  argue  with  his  ac- 
customed clearness  and  exactness  before  their 
Lordships  until  noon ;  when  he  and  his  fel- 
low lawyers  would  repair  in  quaint  procession 
across  the  Parliament  Close  for  their  meridian 


104  terrors  of  tfje  Hafo 

in  John's  Coffee-house.  No  wonder  that  he 
rose  to  be  the  most  popular  advocate  at  the 
Bar  and  had  fifteen  or  twenty  cases  in  one 
day  before  the  Lord  Ordinary  ! 

In  1776,  Macqueen,  after  some  opposition 
on  his  part,  for  the  change  meant  a  reduced 
income,  was  raised  to  the  Bench  as  Lord 
Braxfield :  in  1780  he  was  made  a  Lord  of 
Justiciary,  and  in  1788  as  Lord  Justice 
Clerk  he  became  practically  President  of 
the  Justiciary  Court.  He  died  in  1799  after 
a  long  illness,  so  that  ten  years  measures 
the  time  of  his  pre-eminence.  On  the 
Bench  his  characteristics  were  accentuated, 
and,  of  course,  more  noticeable.  Passable 
in  a  young  advocate,  a  fondness  for  cards, 
for  wine,  for  "  sculduddery,"  was  scandalous 
in  an  elderly  judge,  and  swearing  was  no 
longer  considered  "a  great  ornament  to 
the  conversation  of  a  gentleman."  Yet 
Braxfield  out-Heroded  Herod.  He  cursed 
"  without  provocation,  like  an  ensign  of  the 
last  age  in  his  teens,"  is  the  strange  simile 
of  his  contemporary,  Ramsay  of  Ochtertyre, 
The  changes  in  living  already  noted  were 


Original  Mcir  of  f^crim'ston  105 

accompanied  by  changes  in  thought  and 
sentiment.  The  younger  men  hankered 
after  southern  turns  of  speech,  though  their 
efforts  were  not  over  successful,  for  it  was 
true  of  them  what  Braxfield  said  of  Lord 
Jeffrey  :  "  He  had  tint  his  Scots,  and  gained 
nae  English."  Also,  high-flown  sentiments 
expressed  in  vague  and  enthusiastic  language 
— the  flatulent  eloquence  of  the  Man  of 
feeling — were  much  in  fashion.  And  for 
all  this  Braxfield  cherished  an  utter  hatred, 
a  supreme  contempt.  He  abhorred  verbiage, 
he  was  ever  pertinent  and  material.  He 
exaggerated  his  Scots  of  set  purpose ;  only 
one  of  his  time  could  use  the  words,  so 
expressive  for  wit  and  satire,  of  that  dead 
and  gone,  or  now  degraded  language,  to  the 
same  fell  purpose.  "  He  struck  me  as  very 
like  Robert  Burns,"  says  (again  rather 
oddly)  Ramsay  of  Ochtertyre,  who  knew 
both  men  intimately.  His  seemed  the  voice 
of  Old  Scotland  protesting  against  a  dege- 
nerate and  effeminate  time.  Raeburn,  and 
Raeburn  at  his  very  best — (and  how  good 
that  is  !) — has  limned  him  for  us,  and  various 


106  terrors  of  tfje  Hafo 

contemporaries  have  supplemented  Raeburn 
with  descriptions.  A  strong,  tall,  dark  man, 
with  a  broad  red  face ;  protruding  lips ; 
keen-glancing,  commanding  eyes;  shaggy 
eyebrows  ;  a  deep,  growling  voice  ;  a  certain 
rude,  dramatic  force  in  delivery  ;  an  effective 
colloquial  way  of  arguing  in  the  form  of 
question  and  answer.  In  Raeburn's  picture 
(admirably  commented  on  in  Stevenson's 
Virginibus  Puerisque)  there  is  a  peculiar, 
humorous,  quizzical,  cynical  expression,  as 
of  one  that  has  fathomed  the  baser  side  of 
human  nature,  and  is  contemptuously  amused 
thereby  :  the  face  of  one  not  brutal  nor  cruel, 
nor  even  coarse ;  but  ruthless,  firm,  deter- 
mined ;  a  man  of  strong  intellect,  strong 
character,  strong  will — my  Lord  in  his 
higher  mood.  Drape  the  figure  in  the 
magnificent  trappings  of  a  Scots  Judge  and 
the  result  is  imposing  enough.  His  seeming 
defects,  as  the  growl  and  the  dialect,  intensi- 
fied the  effect.  No  one  laughed  at  Brax- 
field's  talk  and  manner  on  the  Bench : 
the  grotesqueness  was  lost  in  terror. 
Such  was  he  who  in  troubled  times  sat 


Original  Witii  of  f^ermiston   107 

on  the  criminal  judgment-seat  of  the  Scots 
capital. 

There  is  only  praise  for  his  civil  findings. 
He  was  ever  painstaking  and  accurate ;  if 
he  laboured  under  any  misapprehension, 
Ramsay  tells  us,  he  was  pleased  to  be  cor- 
rected. "  He  has  taken  away  more  sound 
law  with  him  than  he  has  left  on  the 
Bench " :  thus  on  his  death  a  colleague 
opposed  to  him  in  many  ways.  If  his  broad 
or  caustic  humour  blazed  out  now  and  again 
it  was  no  hindrance.  A  foolish  member  of 
the  Fifteen  had  delivered  a  rambling  and 
irrelevant  judgment,  concluding  with  "  Such 
is  my  opinion."  "  Your  opeenion!"  growled 
Braxfield  in  one  of  his  formidable  asides. 
Of  Lord  Hailes,  another  of  his  fellow  sena- 
tors, he  said  that  he  "  knew  but  the  neuks 
of  a  case,"  an  opinion  that  will  commend 
itself  to  every  one  who  has  toiled  through 
some  pages  of  Hailes'  Annals.  It  chanced 
that  two  well-known  advocates,  one  of  them 
Charles  Hay,  afterwards  Lord  Newton,  a 
member  of  the  Crochallan  Fencibles,  and  so 
a  boon  companion  of  Burns,  had  been  ' '  late 


108  terrors  of  fyt  Uafo 

at  e'en  drinkin'  the  wine."  Next  day,  with 
every  mark  of  their  last  night's  debauch, 
they  were  pleading  before  Braxfield.  He 
listened  in  contemptuous  amusement,  but  at 
length  burst  forth  :  "  Ye  may  just  pack  up 
your  papers  and  gang  hame  ;  the  tane  o' 
ye's  riftin'  punch  and  the  ither  belchin' 
claret " — (how  exquisitely  subtle  the  distinc- 
tion !) — "  and  there'll  be  nae  guid  got  out  o' 
ye  the  day  !  " 

As  a  criminal  judge  Lord  Cockburn  paints 
him  a  "  bloody  Jeffreys."  "  It  may  be  doubted 
if  he  was  ever  so  much  in  his  element  as 
when  tauntingly  repelling  the  last  despair- 
ing claim  of  a  wretched  culprit,  and  sending 
him  to  Botany  Bay  or  the  gallows  with  an 
insulting  jest.  Yet  this  was  not  from  cruelty, 
for  which  he  was  too  strong  and  too  jovial, 
but  from  cherished  coarseness."  (This  pas- 
sage probably  suggested  the  "Hanging  of 
Duncan  Jopp  "  episode  in  Stevenson.)  Cock- 
burn  was  present  as  a  boy  at  one,  at  least, 
of  the  1793-94  political  trials,  and  he  often 
saw  Braxfield  at  his  father's  house.  He  was 
afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Session, 


Original  OTetr  of  l^ermt'ston   109 

and  the  weight  of  his  authority  is  thus  very 
great.  But  he  detested  Braxfield,  and  as  far 
as  I  can  find,  this  summary  of  his  is  far  too 
strong.  No  saying  of  Braxfield's  is  authen- 
tically reported  that  warrants  it.  I  believe 
the  truth  to  be  this.  There  were  five  ordinary 
Justiciary  Judges  besides  the  Lord  Justice 
Clerk,  and  sometimes  all  were  present  in 
Court.  These  were  Braxfield's  boon  com- 
panions, and  to  them  he  addressed  many 
pithy  asides,  which,  told  and  retold,  lost 
nothing  in  the  telling.  The  very  worst 
legend  was  of  a  supposed  address  to  an  old 
friend,  Matthew  Hay,  with  whom  he  used 
to  play  chess.  Matthew  was  finally  tried 
for  murder  and  convicted  before  him ;  and, 
"That's  checkmate  noo,  Matthew!"  This 
story  was  told  in  the  first  edition  of  Lock- 
hart's  Life  of  Scott,  and  Lockhart  after- 
wards expressly  apologised  to  the  family 
for  it.  Braxfield,  it  seems,  could  not  play 
chess  at  all,  and  the  anecdote  belongs 
to  another  judge,  and  was,  I  fancy,  an 
aside  to  Braxfield,  who  was  present  at  the 
trial. 


no  terrors  of  tfie  Hafo 

In  non-political  cases,  if  the  reports  go 
for  anything,  he  did  excellently.  Take  two 
instances  where  he  presided  :  the  first  is  the 
trial  of  William  Brodie  and  George  Smith, 
on  August  27  and  28,  1788,  for  breaking 
into  and  robbing  the  General  Excise  Office 
of  Scotland  on  March  5  preceding.  Brodie 
was  the  famous  Deacon  Brodie,  the  story 
of  whose  double  life,  as  housebreaker  and 
reputable  citizen,  had  a  peculiar  fascination 
for  Stevenson.  William  Creech,  the  famous 
Edinburgh  bookseller  (he  published  the 
Edinburgh  editions  of  Burns  ;  and  his  shop, 
at  the  east  end  of  the  Luckenbooths,  hard 
by  St.  Giles's,  was  the  resort  of  all  the  wits 
of  his  day)  was  on  the  jury,  and  produced  a 
full  account  of  the  trial.  Beginning  at  nine 
in  the  morning,  it  lasted  the  whole  day  and 
night ;  all  the  time  Braxfield  never  left  the 
Court-room  (no  doubt,  as  was  the  custom, 
he  had  biscuits  and  wine  on  the  Bench). 
He  followed  the  evidence  throughout  with 
the  closest  attention ;  and  everything  for 
and  against  was  noted  in  its  due  place  in  his 
summing-up,  which  began  at  half-past  four 


Original  OTeir  of  f^ermiston  111 

on  the  morning  of  the  second  day  !  Creech 
omits  the  recapitulation  of  the  evidence, 
but  gives  what  seems  the  substance  of  the 
rest  of  the  speech.  It  is  clear  and  pertinent, 
and  it  is  deadly  against  Brodie  (Smith's 
guilt  was  practically  admitted)  simply  by 
reason  of  the  skill  and  acuteness  with  which 
the  facts  are  marshalled.  "  Few  men  could 
have  done  the  like,"  says  Creech.  The 
prisoners  were  found  guilty,  and  were  sen- 
tenced to  death  by  Braxfield  in  a  few  such 
grave  and  dignified  words  as  might  well  be- 
seem a  humane  judge  of  our  own  day.  In 
fairness  I  must  note  that  Creech  was  again 
of  the  jury  in  one  of  the  Sedition  Trials  in 
1794.  He  was  objected  to  by  the  panel 
Gerrald  as  prejudiced ;  and  Braxfield,  in  re- 
pelling the  objection,  went  out  of  his  way 
to  approve  of  Creech's  alleged  statement, 
which  Creech  himself  immediately  after 
declared  he  had  never  made.  The  second 
of  my  two  trials  was  that  of  Sir  A.  Gordon 
Kinloch  for  the  murder  of  his  brother.  It 
began  at  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Monday,  January  29,  1795,  and  ended  a 


112  terrors  of  tfa  ILafo 

few  minutes  before  eight  o'clock  on  the 
Tuesday  morning.  The  facts  were  admitted  ; 
the  defence  being  the  insanity  of  the  panel, 
who  was  in  the  result  acquitted.  The  brevity 
and  point  of  Braxfield's  summing-up  are 
noteworthy.  It  fills  a  little  over  a  column 
of  the  report,  while  the  speeches  for  the 
Crown  and  the  defence  take  up  some  thirty 
between  them. 

The  Sedition  Trials  are  a  different  matter. 
The  chief  were  Thomas  Muir's  in  1793,  and 
William  Skirving's,  Maurice  Margaret's, 
and  Joseph  Gerrald's,  in  1794.  They 
excited  enormous  interest,  and  Braxfield's 
conduct  of  them  was  vehemently  attacked 
and  as  vehemently  defended  in  and  out  of 
Parliament.  Cockburn  (in  two  considerable 
volumes)  subjects  them  to  minute  analysis 
and  criticism.  From  to-day's  judicial  point 
of  view,  Braxfield's  matter  and  manner  are 
inexcusable  ;  but  let  us  try  to  understand 
his  position.  The  prisoners  were  charged 
with  sedition,  which  he  defined  to  be  "  vio- 
lating the  peace  and  order  of  society."  The 
defence  was,  in  substance,  that  they  were 


Original  OTctr  of  f^ermiston   113 

seeking  parliamentary  reform  by  constitu- 
tional methods.  It  was  not  unnaturally 
assumed  that  they  meant  a  good  deal 
more.  The  judges  threw  ail  their  influence 
on  the  side  of  the  prosecution.  At  this 
period  the  French  Kevolution  was  in  full 
blast;  the  King  and  Queen  had  been  exe- 
cuted ;  the  worship  of  Reason  inaugurated, 
and  the  supporters  of  the  old  regime 
despoiled  and  slaughtered  wholesale ;  and 
we  ourselves  were  entering  on  the  great 
Punic  War  of  our  history,  that  struggle 
for  very  life  which  ended  only  at  Water- 
loo. Our  "respectable"  classes  were  in  a 
state  of  frantic  terror,  Braxfield  was  not 
panic-stricken,  but  he  thought  the  coun- 
try in  grave  peril.  Fifty  years  earlier, 
at  the  commencement  of  his  professional 
career,  he  had  seen  a  lad  with  a  few 
friends  land  in  the  Highlands,  overrun 
Scotland,  hold  a  mimic  Court  at  Holy- 
rood,  and  all  but  overthrow  the  Govern- 
ment. Were  Jacobins  likely  to  be  less 
dangerous  than  Jacobites?  He  held  the 
common  legal  doctrine  of  the  eighteenth 


114  Errors  of  tfje  Uafo 

century  as  to  the  perfection  of  the  British 
Constitution,  and  in  Muir's  case  he  laid  it 
down  as  an  axiom. 

In  another  matter  the  Edinburgh  Gazetteer 
reports  him  thus :  "  The  reformers  talk 
of  liberty  and  equality ;  this  they  hae  in 
everything  consistent  wi'  their  happiness, 
and  equality  also.  However  low  born  a 
man  be,  yet  his  abilities  may  raise  him 
to  the  highest  honours  of  the  State.  He 
may  rise  to  be  lord  chancellor,  the  head  of 
the  law ;  he  may  rise  to  be  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  the  head  of  the  kirk  ;  and  tak' 
precedence  of  a'  ranks  but  the  blood-royal. 
What  mair  equality  wad  they  hae  ?  If 
they  hae  ability,  low  birth  is  not  against 
them."  There  is  a  touch  of  parody  in  this 
and  what  follows,  for  which  Captain  John- 
son, the  publisher,  was  had  up  before  the 
court;  but  it  practically  represents  Brax- 
field's  view — a  view  quite  natural  in  a  man 
who  had  risen  by  his  own  merits  to  such 
great  place.  But  if  our  Constitution  was 
perfect,  how  impertinent  and  gratuitous — 
nay,  how  criminal — the  lust  to  tinker  it, 


Original  S2anr  of  f^crmtston   115 

when,  even  if  reform  were  desirable,  the 
time  for  it  was  not  "when  this  nation  is 
engaged  in  a  bloody  war  with  a  neighbour- 
ing nation,  consisting  of  millions  of  the 
most  profligate  monsters  that  ever  disgraced 
humanity!"  The  reformers  (Grumble- 
tonians  he  quaintly  dubbed  them)  were 
under  French  influence,  and  so  held  suspect. 
"  I  never  was  an  admirer  of  the  French 
and  now  I  can  only  consider  them  as 
monsters  of  human  nature."  So  Braxfield 
argued,  and  then  proceeded  to  put  the  case 
for  the  old  order  with  brutal  frankness  : 
"  A  government  in  every  country  should  be 
just  like  a  corporation ;  and,  in  this  country, 
it  is  made  up  of  the  landed  interest,  which 
alone  has  a  right  to  be  represented ;  as  for 
the  rabble,  who  have  nothing  but  personal 
property,  what  hold  has  the  nation  of  them  ? 
What  security  for  the  payment  of  their 
taxes  ?  They  may  pack  up  all  their  pro- 
perty on  their  backs  and  leave  the  country 
in  a  twinkling  of  an  eye,  but  landed  pro- 
perty cannot  be  removed."  In  all  these 
sedition  cases  there  was  no  real  controversy 


116  Errors  of  tljt  Uafo 

over  the  facts,  which  were  well  known  to 
everybody  before  the  trial.  Of  necessity 
Braxfield  came  to  the  judgment-seat  with 
his  mind  made  up. 

The  precedents  of  the  old  Scots  treason 
trials  were  not  such  as  inculcated  impar- 
tiality. The  accused  were,  he  conceived, 
enemies  and  traitors  to  their  country,  and 
it  was  his  plain  duty  to  obtain  a  conviction. 
He  rejoiced  in  his  task,  and  Edinburgh  rang 
with  his  pithy  sayings.  "  Let  them  bring 
me  prisoners  and  I'll  find  them  law,"  was 
his  advice  to  the  authorities.  He  scouted  a 
suggested  difficulty.  "  Hoot,  just  gie  me 
Josie  Norrie  (Clerk  of  the  Court  and  a 
master  of  precedents)  and  a  guid  jury,  and 
I'll  due  for  the  fallow."  The  "  guid  jury  " 
he  took  the  best  means  of  securing.  At 
that  epoch  in  Scotland  the  presiding  judge 
chose  the  jurors  by  picking  five  at  a  time 
till  the  fifteen  were  made  up;  the  prisoner 
had  no  peremptory  challenge,  and  his  ob- 
jections to  each  batch  were  promptly  re- 
pelled. In  a  town  like  Edinburgh,  Braxfield 
knew  many  of  the  jurors  personally,  and 


(Original  WLtii  of  f^ermiston   117 

he  unscrupulously  packed  the  assize  with 
friends  of  the  Government.  At  Muir's 
trial,  John  Homer,  father  of  the  more 
celebrated  Francis,  in  entering  the  box 
passed  by  Braxfield,  who  growled  in  his 
most  dulcet  voice :  "  Come  awa,'  Maister 
Horner,  come  awa,'  and  help  us  to  hang  ane 
o'  they  damned  scoundrels."  He  openly 
said  of  the  reformers :  "  They  wuld  a'  be 
muckle  the  better  o'  being  hangit."  (This 
seems  to  me  the  true  and  original  version 
of  his  supposed  address  to  a  prisoner : 
"Ye're  a  vera  clever  chiel,  man,  but  ye  wad 
be  nane  the  waur  o'  a  hanging.")  But  his 
most  famous  aside  was  in  Gerrald's  case. 
The  panel  urged  that  the  author  of  Chris- 
tianity himself  was  a  reformer.  "  Muckle  he 
made  o'  that,"  chuckled  Braxfield,  "  he  was 
hangit."  This  is  much  more  than  a  semi- 
blasphemous  witticism :  it  is  a  powerful 
argument.  "You  attack  at  your  peril  what 
we  are  sent  here  to  defend,  the  future  must 
settle  whether  we  or  you  are  right ;  we  can 
only  clear  you  out  of  the  way."  I  think 
the  noble-minded  Gerrald  would  have  faced 


118  terrors  of  tf)*  Hafo 

this  conclusion.  He  gave  his  life  for  the 
cause,  and  all  he  contended  for  has  long 
since  been  granted.  In  the  report  Braxfield 
is  more  decorous  and  more  unjust.  He 
accuses  Gerrald  of  attacking  Christianity, 
and  on  this  being  promptly  denied  he  growls 
to  him  to  go  on.  Margaret,  described  as  "  a 
most  impudent  and  provoking  body,"  had 
Braxfield  once  very  neatly  (the  story  is  not 
in  the  report,  however):  "  Hae  ye  ony  coun- 
sel, mon?"  inquired  the  judge.  "No,"  was 
the  answer.  "  Dae  ye  want  to  hae  ony 
appointet  ?  "  "  No,  I  only  wish  an  inter- 
preter to  make  me  understand  what  your 
Lordship  says."  Margarot  did  defend  him- 
self, and  (as  was  natural)  did  so  very  badly. 
He  took  the  absurd  objection  that  the  Lord 
Justice-General  was  not  present,  though  he 
had  been  cited  to  appear  before  him  and 
the  others ;  but,  as  Lord  Henderland  pointed 
out,  by  Act  of  Parliament  any  three  of  the 
judges  were  a  quorum.  Another  objection 
was  more  relevant.  Having  called  two  wit- 
nesses, the  panel  proceeded  to  question 
Braxfield  :  "  Did  you  dine  at  Mr.  Rochead's 


©rfgfnal  S&cir  of  ^ermtston   119 

at  Inverleith  in  the  course  of  last  week  ?  " 
The  judge  must  have  known  what  was 
coming ;  but  he  allowed  him  to  go  on,  and 
assert  that  on  the  occasion  referred  to  he 
had  suggested  as  a  suitable  punishment  a 
hundred  lashes  together  with  Botany  Bay. 
A  lady  guest  had  queried  :  Would  the  mob 
allow  this  ?  "  And,  my  Lord,  did  you  not 
say  that  the  mob  would  be  the  better  for 
losing  a  little  blood  ?  "  Braxfield  listened 
in  grim  amusement  to  what  was,  in  all  pro- 
bability, a  true  charge.  His  fellow  judges 
decided  that  he  need  not  answer  the  ques- 
tion. At  Gerrald's  trial,  much  the  same 
objection  being  taken  in  a  more  formal  and 
proper  manner,  Braxfield  had  the  decency 
to  leave  the  chair  whilst  his  brethren  con- 
sidered and  repelled  it. 

In  every  case  the  panel  was  convicted, 
and  sentenced  to  fourteen  years  transpor- 
tation. Muir  escaped  to  France,  Gerrald 
died,  Margarot  long  after  visited  Edinburgh. 
Judges,  accusers,  witnesses,  all  seemed 
gone ;  but  at  last  he  found  one  of  his 
original  jury,  and  him  he  entertained  at 


120  terrors  of  tfjc 

dinner.  Even  then  they  were  not  agreed, 
for  the  juryman  had  turned  Radical  and  now 
Margaret  was  Tory  !  Perhaps  they  found 
a  common  ground  in  discussing  the  dra- 
matic incidents  of  the  trial.  A  strange 
scene,  indeed !  The  panel  sat  in  the  midst 
on  a  long  bench  between  two  of  the 
"town's  rottens"  (rats),  as  the  people  called 
the  men  of  the  old  City  Guard — each  with 
coat  of  ancient  pattern,  his  huge  cocked 
hat,  his  drawn  bayonet  in  his  hand.  Be- 
tween prisoner  and  bench  the  advocates 
grouped  round  a  paper-burdened  table. 
The  galleries  were  packed  with  the  mob,  all 
in  favour  of  the  accused.  They  had  yelled 
round  him  at  the  door  of  the  Court,  and 
even  there  they  would  break,  an'  they  dared, 
into  loud  applause.  The  unsnuffed  tallow 
candles  guttered  in  the  foetid  air  as  hour 
after  hour  the  night  went  by.  There,  ex- 
alted in  the  midst  of  his  fellow  senators, 
sat  Braxfield,  with  his  angry,  commanding 
look,  his  scornful  smile,  his  short,  sharp 
speech,  dominating  his  brethren  on  the 
bench,  timid  jurymen,  and  hostile  mob. 


©rigmal  OTetr  of  f^ermiston   121 

And    so,    under    his   masterful   touch,    the 
drama  moved   on   to  its   fated   conclusion, 
whilst  for  chorus  on   the   deep   silence   of 
critical  moments  of  the  trial,  there  broke  in 
the   sound   of   the    "Janwar   wind,"   as   it 
wailed  and  raved  among  the  tall  lands  and 
long  closes  that  stood  round.     And  when 
all   was    over,    and    the    Court-room    had 
emptied   itself    into    the   night,   Braxfield 
curtly  declining  any  offer  of  escort,  walked 
down  one  of  those  same  closes,  and  across 
the  Cowgate,  and  up  the  other  side  to  his 
house  in    George  Square,   alone,    unafraid, 
and   untouched    by   that   wild    Edinburgh 
rabble  which  had  hanged  Captain  Porteous 
of  old  time,  and  now  cursed,  and  foamed, 
and    shuddered  at  the  very  sound  of    his 
name.     "  We  were  all  mad,"  said   one  of 
the  jurymen  to  Cockburn  long  afterwards. 
Perhaps  even  Braxfield  did  not  go  through 
that  fiery  ordeal  untouched ;  and  the  long 
illness  that  preceded  his  death  five   years 
after  finds  here  a  plausible  explanation.     In 
truth,  the  old  man  must  have  felt  the  new 
times  and  the  new  ways  too  much  for  him. 


122  terrors  of  rije  Hafo 

Knox's  thought,  if  not  Knox's  words,  must 
have  been  often  in  his  mind :  the  world 
was  weary  of  him  as  he  was  of  it.  Yet  he, 
too,  had  his  softer  hour.  He  was  a  warm 
and  attached  friend,  and  he  spared  no  trouble 
in  the  service  of  his  friends.  One  or  two  of 
his  letters,  written  in  his  clear,  almost  fem- 
inine hand,  are  preserved  among  the  Loch- 
naw  papers.  The  tone  is  kindly,  even 
delicate  and  chivalrous. 

Weir  of  Hermiston  is  professedly  a  resus- 
citation of  Braxfield.  Stevenson  was  too 
true  an  artist  to  repeat  old  anecdotes.  The 
sayings  he  puts  in  Hermiston's  mouth  are 
such  as  Braxfield  might  have  uttered ;  but 
not  one  of  them  is  his.  Yet  the  remark  on 
page  12,  as  to  the  Christian  cook — "I  want 
Christian  broth !  Get  me  a  lass  that  can 
plain-boil  a  potato,  if  she  was  a  whiire  off 
the  streets,"  is  more  in  the  true  Braxfield 
manner  than  any  story  attributed  to  him. 
I  note  one  or  two  points  wherein  Hermiston 
differs  from  Braxfield.  The  strangest  (as 
pointed  out  in  Mr.  Sidney  Colvin's  interest- 
ing editorial  note)  is  the  later  date.  Weir 


Original  (KSnr  of  f^nmiston  123 

is  active  in  1813,  whereas  Braxfield  twenty 
years  before  seemed  the  survival  of  an 
earlier  age.  One  conjectures  that  some 
important  event  in  the  story  compelled  this 
incongruity.  I  think  Mr.  Colvin  fanciful  in 
supposing  the  name  Weir  suggested  by  the 
historical  Major  Weir,  the  Edinburgh  war- 
lock. The  name  is  not  rare  in  Scotland  : 
here,  as  lawyers  say,  "  nothing  turns  on  it." 
Braxfield  was  Advocate  Depute  but  never 
Lord  Advocate,  as  Hermiston  was.  One 
point  has  been  missed,  it  would  seem. 
Stevenson  proposed  to  make  the  trial  of 
young  Weir  take  place  before  the  Lord 
Justice-General  (the  official  head  of  the 
Court  of  Justiciary).  But  this  could  not  be, 
says  Mr.  Graham  Murray,  the  Scots  Solicitor- 
General  :  "  this  title  being  at  the  date  in 
question  only  a  nominal  one  held  by  a  lay- 
man (which  is  no  longer  the  case)  "  (p.  272). 
Now,  it  is  true  enough  that  the  Lord  Justice- 
General's  office  was  for  long  a  nominal  one 
held  by  a  Scots  nobleman.  Lord  Mansfield 
(not  the  Lord  Mansfield)  filled  it  at  the  date 
of  the  Sedition  Trials.  A  comparatively 


124  terrors  of  tije  Hafo 

recent  Act  (1  Will.  IV.  c.  69,  sees.  18  and 
19)  provided  for  its  union  in  future  with 
that  of  the  President  of  the  Court  of 
Session ;  but  in  one  remarkable  case — to 
wit,  the  trial  of  James  Stuart,  at  Inverary, 
in  1752,  the  very  trial  on  which  Stevenson's 
Catriona  turns — the  Duke  of  Argyll,  though 
a  layman  (with  some  legal  training,  it  is 
true),  and  though  heritable  jurisdictions 
had  been  abolished  in  1747,  did  actually 
preside  as  Lord  Justice- General  and  head  of 
the  Justiciary  Court.  Nay,  more :  he  sen- 
tenced the  prisoner  to  death  in  a  remarkable 
speech,  part  of  which  is  quoted  in  Catriona. 
His  presence  and  his  conduct  were  bitterly 
commented  on  at  the  time ;  but  Stevenson 
might,  without  impropriety,  have  followed 
an  historical  precedent. 

Stevenson  (with  proper  delicacy)  deserted 
history  altogether  in  his  account  of  the 
Weir  family  other  than  their  chief.  Mrs. 
Weir  is  an  admirable  Scotch  type  exquisitely 
drawn,  and  one  of  the  Braxfield  stories 
would  fit  her  very  well.  His  Lordship  had 
a  lady  as  his  partner  in  some  game  of  cards. 


©rujmal  OTttr  of  f^etmiston    125 

She  played  very  badly,  whereat  "  he  lows'd 
his  tinkler  jaw  "  in  an  oration  mainly  com- 
posed of  "  bitch "  and  "  damn "  to  the 
dame's  great  indignation.  He  had  thought 
(he  explained)  for  the  moment  that  he  was 
addressing  his  spouse.  There  are  two  other 
wife  stories  about  Braxfield.  The  first  tells 
of  his  proposal  to  his  lady-elect :  "I  am 
lookin'  out  for  a  wife,  and  I  thought  you 
just  the  person  that  wad  suit  me.  Let  me 
hae  your  answer  off  or  on  the  morn,  and 
nae  mair  aboot  it."  The  second  is  a  jewel 
of  the  first  water.  His  butler  gave  him 
notice,  alleging  that  Mrs.  Macqueen's 
temper  was  too  much  for  him.  "Man," 
returned  his  Lordship,  "  ye've  little  to  com- 
plain o' ;  ye  may  be  thankfu'  ye're  no 
married  upon  her."  Both  these  stories 
(true  or  false)  refer  to  Braxfield's  second 
wife,  a  daughter  of  the  Lord  Chief  Baron 
of  the  Exchequer  in  Scotland.  His  first, 
Mary,  an  Agnew  of  Lochnaw,  in  Wigtown- 
shire, belonged  to  a  very  old  family,  which 
held  the  hereditary  sheriffship  of  Galloway 
for  centuries.  In  the  days  of  the  Persecu- 


126  terrors  of  tfce  Hafo 

tion  it  had  (unlike  the  Rutherfords)  inclined 
to  the  Covenanting  interest.  It  is  useless  to 
trace  the  history  of  Braxfield's  descendants, 
who,  through  the  female  line,  still  hold  the 
estate.  Francis  Weir's  story  is  entirely  his 
own. 

Much  of  Braxfield's  table  talk  owes  its 
piquancy  to  the  high  place  of  the  talker. 
Sir  James  Colquhoun  being  asked  to  take  a 
hand  at  cards  as  his  partner,  refused  unless 
my  Lord  promised  "no  to  misca'  him." 
"  I'll  no  misca'  ye,  Jamie,"  said  Braxfield. 
The  game  went  on;  Sir  James  played 
badly,  and  was  vigorously  cursed  as  "  fule  " 
and  "idiot."  He  taxed  his  Lordship  with 
broken  faith.  But  Braxfield  returned  that 
he  was  not  misca'd  but  truly  described. 
The  two  in  Dean  Ramsay's  Reminiscences  are 
a  trifle  better.  At  a  party  at  the  old 
Castle  of  Douglas  there  was  no  claret  on  the 
table,  because,  said  Lord  Douglas,  it  was  not 
good.  "  Let's  pree't,"  said  Braxfield  with 
unsurpassable  brevity.  The  claret  proved 
excellent ;  and  the  story  goes  off  into  a  joke 
on  Church  law,  about  there  being  a  fama 


Original  Sgaet'r  of  f^ermiston   127 

clamosa  against  the  wine,  and  that  it  could 
only  be  absolved  after  three  several  appear- 
ances. The  other  reminiscence  is  of  a 
failure  in  a  criminal  trial  where  the  indict- 
ment had  charged  a  theft  of  shirts  and  the 
goods  were  proved  shifts.  "  Sark,"  said 
Braxfield,  "  would  have  cleared  the  difficulty, 
for  it  meant  both."  This  was  plainly  a 
humorous  "  cracking  up "  of  broad  Scots. 
Braxfield,  one  feels,  condensed  and  exagge- 
rated of  set  purpose.  "  What  a  glorious 
thing  it  is  to  speak  nonsense  !  "  he  was  wont 
to  exclaim.  An  admirable  translation,  no 
doubt,  of  the  Horatian  dulce  est  desipere  in 
loco  ;  but  the  pity  is  that  it  ignores  the  last 
two  words.  The  pity  is,  too,  that  there  was 
no  competent  hand  to  collect  and  winnow 
Braxfield's  sayings,  so  that  much  of  Brax- 
field's  best  is  gone  beyond  recall,  and  no 
Villon  Society  will  ever  procure  a  private 
issue  of  it  at  Benares,  or  at  Glasgow,  to 
delight  the  strong  and  yet  spare  the  queasy 
stomach.  That  was  not  to  be  ;  and  we  get 
our  best  glimpse  of  the  real  man  in  the 
magic  light  of  Stevenson's  romance.  Yet 


128  terrors  of  ttjc  Hafo 

a  greater  than  Stevenson  was  there.     The 
potent  Wizard  of  the  North  himself  knew 
"  Old  Braxie  "  (as  he  called  him)  intimately, 
and  dedicated  to  him  the  admission  thesis 
as  Advocate  on  the  title  in  the  Pandects  on 
the  disposal  of  the  dead  bodies  of  criminals, 
and  he  must  have  heard  him  almost  daily  in 
the  Parliament  House.     Perhaps  his  finer 
taste  rejected  a  subject  at  once  so  intimate 
and  so  near  ;  and  one  can  but  wish  that  the 
creator  of  Peter  Peebles  had  touched    his 
Braxie  to  immortal  issues.      In    any  case, 
there  is  one  scene  at  least  of  his  making 
in  which  this  type  of   an  earlier  age   had 
appeared    (despite    the   anachronism)   with 
superb    fitness.      In  that  terrible   page  of 
Wandering  Willie's  tale,  where  the  spirits  of 
the  Persecutors  hold  ghastly  revel  in  their 
"  appointed  place  "  ;  there,  with  "  the  fierce 
Middleton,  and  the  dissolute    Rothes,  and 
the  crafty  Lauderdale  "  ;  with  Dalyell,  and 
Earlshall,  and  "  Wild  Bonshaw,"  and  "  Dun- 
barton    Douglas,   the    twice-turned   traitor 
baith    to   country   and    king,"    and     "the 
Bluidy  Advocate  Mackenzie,  who,  for  his 


Original  32Sw  of  f^rmtston    129 

worldly  wit  and  wisdom,  had  been  to  the 
rest  as  a  god,"  and  Claverhouse,  with  his 
"  melancholy  haughty  countenance,"  there 
among  his  peers,  was  the  place  for  Braxfield 
with  his  wit,  his  blasphemy  and  "  sculdud- 
dery,"  his  lore,  his  ire,  his  inflexible  purpose, 
his  truculent  and  masterful  personality. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


SECOND  EDITION  Now  READY, 
Fcap.  8vo,  139  pages.     Price  3s.  6d.  net. 


(First  Series.) 


I.  Benefit  of  Clergy. 

II.  Peine  forte  et  dure. 

III.  A  Passage  in  Shake- 

speare (Fines and  Re- 
coveries). 

IV.  The  Custom  of  the 

Manor. 

V.     Deodands. 
VI.    The  Law  of  the  Forest. 


Contents. 

VII. 


VIII. 
IX. 

x. 

XI. 
XII. 


Par  Nobile  Fratrum 
(John  Doe  and 
Richard  Roe). 

Sanctuary. 
Trial  by  Ordeal. 
Wager  of  Battle. 
The  Press  Gang. 
Sumptuary  Laws. 


(Opinions  of  tf)c 

On  the  First  Series  of 
THE  LAW'S  LUMBER  ROOM. 

11  It  is  saying  very  little  to  say  that  Mr.  Watt's  book  is 
'as  interesting  as  a  novel, '  it  is  far  more  interesting  than  a 
hundred  domestic  tales  of  doleful  creatures,  or  than  all 
the  '  Women  Who  ' — ought  to  be  ducked." — Daily  News 
(Leader). 

"  There  is  nothing  dry  or  pedantic  in  Mr.  Watt's  way  of 
dealing  with  his  themes.  His  learning  is  deep  and  recon- 
dite, but  he  wears  it  lightly,  and  the  papers  are  always 
readable. ' ' — Scotsman. 

"  The  whole  book  is  a  miniature  mine  of  the  oddest  legal 
antiquities." — Glasgow  Herald. 

"  An  interesting  little  volume." — Manchester  Guardian. 

"  The  book  is  full  of  interest  on  every  page." 

Daily  Chronicle 


"A  fascinating  volume,  for  legal  repositories  have  been 
ransacked  for  remnants  of  romance  and  have  yielded  an 
abundant  store,  which  has  been  admirably  represented.' 

Black  and  White. 

"This  pleasantly  learned  little  book." — Daily  Telegraph. 

"  Both  lawyers  and  laymen  may  spend  an  agreeable  half 
hour  in  'The  Law's  Lumber  Room,'  the  title  chosen  by  Mr 
Francis  Watt  for  his  collection  of  articles  on  quaint  legal 
customs  of  olden  time." — Globe. 

"  The  quaint  and  often  cumbrous,  but  how  strangely  inte- 
resting, '  discarded  methods  '  of  the  law  form  the  subject- 
matter  of  this  delightful  little  book." — The  Gentlewoman. 

"  It  is  the  anecdotes  he  has  collected,  as  well  as  the 
curious  half-incredible,  half -forgotten  customs  he  describes, 
that  make  Mr.  Watt's  treatment  of  such  subjects  as 
'Sanctuary,'  'Deodands,'  or  the  'Press-Gang,'  no  less 
entertaining  than  instructive." — Literary  World. 

"  We  have  read  the  book  with  pleasure  from  cover  to 
cover,  and  bear  willing  tribute  to  its  interest.  .  .  .  The 
value  and  interest  of  the  volume  are  far  in  advance  of  its 
size,  and  we  commend  it  as  a  book  to  be  read  and  then 
kept  at  hand  for  reference." — Notes  and  Queries. 

"A  very  entertaining  little  volume.  ...  It  is  the  kind 
of  book  that  there  was  room  for,  a  subject  too  much 
neglected.  And  a  better  guide  than  Mr.  Watt  could  not 
be  found." — Review  of  Reviews. 

••  Very  interesting  are  the  papers  dealing  with  benefit  of 
clergy,  sanctuary,  old  manorial  customs,  the  press-gang, 
sumptuary  laws ;  but  really  all  is  good  from  cover  to 
cover." — The  Guardian. 

"  This  is  a  most  entertaining,  as  well  as  instructive, 
little  book."— The  Sketch. 

"  This  is  a  charming  little  book,  as  light  in  form  as  in 
substance,  which  lawyers  may  read  with  profit,  laymen 
with  interest,  and  both  with  entertainment." 

The  Speaker. 

"This  little  volume  is  full  of  learning  skilfully  applied." 

The  Spectator. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 

Now  READY, 
Fcap.  8vo,  202  pages.     Price  4s.  6d.  net. 

3Tf)e  Hato's  Humftet  l&oom 

(Second  Series.) 

Contents. 


Tyburn  Tree. 
Pillory  and  Cart's  Tail. 
State  Trials  for  Witchcraft. 
A  Pair  of  Parricides. 


Some    Disused    Roads    to 

Matrimony. 
The  Border  Law. 
The  Sergeant-at-Law. 


Opinions  of  tfje 

On  the  Second  Series  of 
THE  LAW'S  LUMBER  ROOM. 

"  The  law  has  been  much  abused  on  divers  occasions, 
but  in  providing  the  matter  of  this  small  volume  it  has 
made  amends.  For  the  book  might  reconcile  all  but  the 
most  impatient  of  men  to  a  bitter  experience  of  the 
proverbial  delays  of  the  law.  It  is  never  dull  and  on 
many  points  it  should  at  the  same  time  convince  and  cure 
the  reader  of  any  excusable  ignorance." — Morning  Post 
(Leader). 

"  Mr.  Watt's  volume  passes  from  grave  to  gay,  from 
Tyburn  to  Gretna  Green  and  Fleet  Marriages,  and 
throughout  it  offers  agreeable  entertainment  for  the 
curious." — Daily  Chroniele  (Leader). 

"  Mr.  Watt  has  dug  in  the  mines  where  Scott  dug  for 
his  Romances,  and  given  us  the  raw  material.  But  he 
has  selected  the  material,  fitted  it  for  the  squeamish  eyes 
of  to-day,  and  by  his  literary  talent  has  worked  it  into  neat 
and  finished  essays.  He  is  an  ideal  presenter  of  the 
rougher  history  of  the  past  to  cultivated  readers  ;  accurate, 
honest,  yet  with  an  eye  for  romance,  not  at  all  sentimental, 
and  ever  in  good  taste.  There  is  a  fine  collection  of 
strange  stories  in  his  book,  all  excellently  told." — The 
Bookman. 


"The  papers  have  literary  merits  uncommon  in  works 
of  so  much  erudition,  and  the  book  will  be  read  with 
interest  by  every  one  who  takes  it  up." — Scotsman. 

"  Mr.  Watt  has  dusted  his  Lumber  Room  with  a  loving 
hand,  and  has  produced  a  most  amusing  little  book  in 
which  there  is  more  learning  than  pedantry  and  less  law 
than  laughter." — The  Daily  Mail. 

"  Every  one  of  the  papers  here  collected  must  have 
cost  the  writer  many  hours  of  research  ;  but  their  perusal 
is  so  easy  and  pleasant  for  the  reader  that  he  is  eager  to 
begin  a  fresh  one  as  soon  as  its  predecessor  is  disposed 
of."— The  Outlook. 

"  Mr.  Watt  gossips  pleasantly,  and  novelists  who  deal 
with  the  period  will  find  him  handy." — The  Westminster 
Gazette. 

"  Every  page  is  full  of  interesting  detail  presented  in 
a  fascinating  manner.  .  .  .  Mr.  Watt  has  a  sense  of 
humour  that  makes  the  book  scintillate  amid  its  more 
sordid  details,  and  every  one  who  likes  good  writing  and 
takes  an  interest  in  old  laws  and  customs,  should  make 
haste  and  force  the  publishers  to  issue  a  second  edition." 
—To-Day. 

"  The  first  series  has  won  much  praise,  but  these  essays 
in  the  newer  book  are  likely  to  be  still  more  popular.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Watt  has  written  nothing  morbid,  he  is  a  student 
of  manners,  something  of  a  wit,  and  writes  with  excellent 
and  competent  brevity." — The  Skttch. 

"  The  second  series  of  Mr.  Watt's  pleasant  collection 
of  essays  will  rival  the  first  in  interest.  There  is  nothing 
that  the  layman  will  not  appreciate  and  understand  in 
the  handy  little  volume.  .  .  .  We  have  said  enough  to  tell 
our  readers  where  they  can  obtain  some  highly  enter- 
taining literature.  Let  us  add  that  the  book  can  be  read 
with  discretion  and  by  all  adults. " — St.  James's  Gazette. 

"  Those  who  remember  Mr.  Watt's  first  series  of  '  The 
Law's  Lumber  Room '  will  welcome  a  second  series." — 
The  Star. 

"  Mr.  Francis  Watt's  second  series  of  •  The  Law's 
Lumber  Room '  contains  much  interesting  matter  .  .  . 
his  pleasant  writing  is  based  on  careful  research." — 
Manchester  Guardian. 

"  The  reader  can  scarcely  fail  to  pick  up  some  use- 
ful information,  however  cursory  his  perusal." — Glasgow 
Herald. 


A     000  638  205     £ 


